Life After Molmol, Book Two : Making Your Way
by Gojirob
Summary: The Hinata-Sou's residents are united as never before. Their goals are Tokyo U, fixing things up, and being there for each other. But romances and exhaustion join with potential tragedies past and present to make sure things never get dull for our gang.
1. Prologue We Breathe Together

**Life After Molmol – A Tale Of The Missing Three Years Of Love Hina**

_**Book Two – Making Your Way In The World Todai**_

**Prologue – We Breathe Together**

_**AUGUST 9**__**TH**__**, 1945**_

Rear Admiral Matome Ugaki looked out with some trepidation at the latest-and perhaps the very last-batch. Was this what they were driven to? But these callow boys were now his sons, and he would guide them like a good father. One and all, he would send them back to the heavenly father.

"Weapons that can crush cities may only crush our spirits if we allow this! In as little as a week, you will be called upon to keep the enemy at bay long enough for our leaders to consider our peril and then repel it."

He addressed a question that was on all their minds.

"Why does one in my position address you personally? Because while all my sons face death, I wish to see the eyes of those who embrace it so directly. Be as firm as the enemy is soft, when that time comes. The time that you ride on the Breath Of God himself. So Kami Be Invoked."

In perfect unison, the pilot trainees called Kamikaze responded.

"So Kami Be Invoked."

The Rear Admiral stopped and looked each man in the eye, and none dared flinch or shrink from his gaze. The last of all not only met his gaze but almost seemed to push back. The senior officer was impressed, and directed by a nod that this one was to fly point.

"Boy—what is your name?"

When the young man did not answer, he was struck and blood drawn from his right cheek.

"You will answer me!"

"I Ask Your Forgiveness, Great Sir. But I had to be certain that your request was not a test in and of itself. I was not given prior leave to speak."

"You were not. Had you not been so mindful of this, I would not have struck you, but ended your existence where you sit. You are given leave to speak, now. What is your name?"

Steel suffusing and permeating every corner of his being, the young fanatic spoke.

"I am Awa Urashima, Admiral. My life, like my death, is pledged to our Divine Emperor."

OUTSKIRTS OF NAGASAKI

"But she has no one."

"None of them have anyone. That thing they dropped was straight out of a creation myth. Wait—haven't I seen her before?"

"Yes—we brought her here from the ruins of the Emperor's City."

"Two of them in a row? This child is cursed! No one will wish to touch her, let alone marry her. Well, for the time being, we can place her in the hospital, where she may attend to her brothers who have seen combat. Girl—what is your name?"

In a halting voice, a girl who had come to believe perhaps she was cursed spoke only her given name.

"Hinata."

_**AUGUST 31**__**ST**__**, 2001**_

**PRIVATE JOURNAL OF KEITARO URASHIMA**

_On this day, my fiancée struck me in the head. A warrior I know came at me with all she had. A princess and I discussed war. My new House Manager threw herself at me. Another girl I have known since childhood astounded me into silence by revealing her two most stunning assets. A girl who has never recognized her worth dueled against me with kitchen utensils, deeply offended by a proposition I had made. _

_If this seems like old times, let me just say anew how nothing has been the same since Molmol. Our conflict is done. The sisters' war is successfully concluded, and I will even dare to say that we have all evolved. I was also upset. I was upset that the girls thought that simply running after me while ditching Naru would be enough to change the choice my heart had already made. Even their most heartfelt explanations and apologies came across often as latter-day retellings. My thought was, my intrusions were largely accidents—this was deliberate. But I was also upset that Naru thought that some manner of seduction would change me or trick me. I weighed all this against the benefits of knowing them all and told myself I was a lucky fool who should not complain even of the madhouse almost everyone from Seta to Su turned that trip into. I settled for an oath to always declare their feelings even in the harshest times and to never pull something so loathsome and unworthy ever again against my continued friendship and affection for them. Happily, I at last forgave what was a sincere if badly muddled effort for my affections._

_I was again a fool, for in my easy forgiveness I lacked the ability to see that I was the only one forgiving matters so quickly, or even at all. This fragile lovely thing we have here nearly dissolved in fire, and at certain points, I only added fuel to it. But the main source of fuel came from the underbrush, the long history these lovely women had together and all the small things and some large that had never really been addressed. Maybe it all needed to burn off. That's what Haruka said, and thank God Auntie warned me of this coming. She had told me once that we two were 'partners against the craziness' of life. She smiles quite a bit nowadays—relative to Haruka's standards, of course. It is a sweet—and I will say it—even a sexy smile, and it reminds me of why we always loved to put people ill at ease about the possible hidden levels to our relationship. Even by my standards, people are sometimes so easily thrown off._

_The firestorm passed, and after reconciling with Kanako and even standing up to Grandma on the odd issue, we began our new lives. Up until now, I had still felt like an intruder who would be shown the door any day now. It was my house (qualified until recently) but it was their home and their family. Now it is ours._

_In the past two weeks, we have begun analyzing just what needs to be done to make this Dorm into a summertime hotel. Each day is full and rich and long as a result. _

"OW!OW!OW!"

"Wimp!"

Keitaro finally slid forward underneath her as she kept on.

"Naru! You kept hitting my head into the wallboard!"

She leaned down and kissed him as their 'session' continued.

"But I'm worth it, right?"

"Of course…"

He seized momentum and flipped their positions, giving her head the same treatment.

"Just as I am, right?"

"I'm being assaulted by a pervert…who better start putting his back into it, if he knows what's good for him!"

After they were done, she giggled.

"Maybe we should have been smashed on sake when we met in the onsen that day. If we'd done that as a result, both our tension levels would have dropped way down."

He shrugged, while disposing of their 'protection'.

"With our luck? We'd have fifteen kids by now."

"Oh? Would that be so bad?"

He carefully considered his answer.

"My clumsiness and durability combined with your strength and temper."

She shuddered, conceding the point.

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_For my safety, I also told her that I meant the young people we were would not have been fit parents. She hit me with words, asking when exactly we would be 'there' in terms of parenting skills. My honest confession that I had no idea saved me, but I have to wonder if Haruka's pregnancy isn't on her mind. I think Auntie and my little joke about it being mine may have hurt Naru's feelings. I think she may value being the mother of my first child more than being my first love or my first time. My social life before I came to the Sou can guarantee she will be. Unless a girl gets pregnant by insulting and belittling you—though that would be a way to stop a lot of the bullying in this world._

_Ironic that Mitsune was the one who warned us into protecting ourselves. I guess all the times she's been with guys made her doubly careful. Caution should always be used between a man and a woman—whether you're trying to decide when a new life should happen or keep the one you have from ending because you were distracted._

"URASHIMA!"

Her sword slashed at where he had just been, but he still felt the way it cut the air, almost creating a vacuum as it passed.

"You will not escape me!"

Arms and legs kicked out at every bit of air that the minor ki attacks did not. Sometimes confidently, sometimes yelping in fear, he dodged almost all attacks.

"I'm almost at my goal, Motoko!"

"That I can never allow!"

Just as his hand reached for the juncture of where her robes were tied, a full-force Ki Attack sent him flying, very nearly off the roof itself.

"Keitaro!"

In a panic, Motoko grabbed his hand, ignoring what she knew about his physiology. She loved him too much to take the chance that he might not survive this particular fall. He smiled after he was pulled up.

"Almost had you that time."

His smile was returned.

"Horseshoes and hand grenades, Urashima. My theoretical modesty remains intact."

He shrugged as he stretched sore leg muscles.

"What I don't get is, why have that of all places as my target? I am clumsy sometimes, and despite recent events, I don't see you taking being accidentally stripped very well."

"You are clumsy at your soul's core, Urashima. Therefore, the very safest way to avoid being stripped by you is if you have it as your stated goal."

"Wish we'd thought of that three years ago."

A light embrace followed, and then she looked into his eyes.

"And rob me of some of my fondest memories?"

She began to throw a makeshift medicine ball between the two of them.

"So what will you teach her after my session is done with?"

Keitaro threw it back at her full-force, respecting her wishes not to be babied. He rather doubted his strongest throw meant much to the toned and limber samurai.

"Well, since all of your lessons are by definition structured, I thought I'd let her pick from a certain set of subjects and try to teach back from her own questions about it."

"Chaotic, but when one considers our student, a wise approach."

"My father showed that learning method to me once by back-tracking the way my favorite pastry was made."

She grunted at receiving and then throwing anew, but kept up her end of the conversation as well.

"You are a fair chef, have become a decent warrior, you have a distinct mischievous streak when paired with Auntie, you have an intelligence that arises as you need it, and you are one of two people that Kaolla Su actually listens to. Is there anything else you seek to rival our band of sisters in?"

Unable to resist the opening, Keitaro caught the heavy ball absently with just one hand.

"Nothing I can think of."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_My hand is still sore, but the look on her face was well worth it. I think she even knew she was being played, but I think it's been so long since she played for fun that she welcomes it. Her hair is even growing back in, though she's wearing it looser than before. I kind of like it. _

_Just as some need to loosen up, others need to have their focus tightened and sharpened. Kami, I may have conquered the hearts of at least two women who said they hated me, but making the little girl with light blond hair and dark skin listen in a way that channels her wildness in positive ways may just be the thing that undoes my so-called immortality._

"I pick History."

"Okay. Come up with a question."

Eyes bright and wide and inquisitive showed her smile before she did.

"Why did the Pacific War happen?"

Keitaro knew better than to actually tackle such a huge subject, yet dismissing Su's inquiry entirely would also be wrong.

"Too much of that answer depends on your point of view."

"Is this one of those Jedi things?"

"Sort-of. Before hostilities finally erupted with Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto was heard to say that Japan would have to conquer America outright, including taking Washington DC itself."

Keitaro paused and then continued.

"His superiors in Tojo's government took this as a proud boast of Japan's capabilities. People in the American military took this statement as a direct threat of intent."

"So which was it?"

"It was neither. The Admiral was warning his superiors. Their notion that attacking Pearl Harbor would drive America into neutrality and isolation was a foolish one, and that if they wanted to stop America, it would require conquering the entire country, something an island nation already strained for resources could never hope to do."

Su shook her head.

"How does that explain about the whole Pacific War?"

"Simple. You have words taken the wrong way, attitudes reinforced by those words, and a man who may have disagreed with much of his country's path but for whom loyalty and obligation left opposing it out of the question. Other such men, to varying degrees, have included the German Erwin Rommel and the Americans' Robert E. Lee."

"But Onii-Chan, that's so complicated!"

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_She's such a sweet kid. Getting her into 'complicated' thinking is exactly what Motoko and I need to do. From that one discussion, I was able to hit many basic tenets of historical research and thought. I was a bit uncomfortable placing Rommel in with Yamamoto-Dono and Lee, but again the lesson that even a man working for a bad regime can be at least complicated achieves my basic goal. I'll consult with my history professor about the finer points of my lecture—I'm certain I flubbed or overstated at least some things. But maybe by showing that even her 'Onii-Chan' can make such mistakes, she'll still learn. My head nearly exploded when she wanted to know about why it was 'history' instead of 'herstory'. Though it involved balancing Japanese, English, and Ancient Greek, again, the basic breakthrough was well worth it. Yet this sweet child who was stopped from being the first girl ever to supply me with that 'special kiss' while tied up at gunpoint still had the ability to blow my mind with a few simple words._

"What did Grandma's husband do during the Pacific War?"

Keitaro was struck dumb by this.

"Wow-I have no idea. I mean, he had to have served. Young men of that time just did. But I have never heard so much as one word-hold on Su."

Keitaro grabbed his cell-phone.

"Yeah, it's me again. Listen, what do you know about Granpa Awa's service during the war?"

On the other end, Haruka Seta was silent for twenty seconds before her nephew heard a response.

"You either? Isn't that a bit strange?"

"Okay, Auntie. Thanks."

Shutting the phone off, Keitaro shook his head.

"That's really odd, Su. Maybe next time we hear from Grandma, we'll ask."

She then said the words that blew his mind.

"Or we could just use my time machine to find out."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_Kaolla Su, a girl who had tortured and kidnapped me, and who I've had at least a few perverted dreams about (she is that cute) had successfully built an actual time machine—really a time scanner, but the idea itself is still flatly staggering—especially in her possession. She showed me the day Naru nearly killed me for real, and how her own voice in 2000 intruded on that scene. I told her gently to immediately inform Motoko, and I will have to tell Naru. What we will do about it I have no idea._

_A Time Machine. If any Future Apes are reading this, know that intelligent Humans once did exist—we just weren't always that bright about things. I mean, who would have ever thought that a girl of infinite energy, easily bored and with a real problem with understanding the feelings of others would get hold of such a potentially reality-shattering power?_

_Besides *her*._

"Hey, Bro."

"Hey yourself, Mitsu. So what's on our exploratory agenda today?"

"Actually, you happy humpers gave it to me. A lot of couples coming here, new or established, or going to want to have that special relaxation time, too."

"Fair point. So we're talking about some level of soundproofing?"

"Actually, that's a good idea, too, if we can do it without substantially cramping the space or reducing air circulation. Most soundproofing, except for space-age thin materials, tends to be carpeting layered across walls and such. Kinda takes away from the ambience."

"Well, we could parse out the expensive thin materials, and maybe carpet the floors a bit. Also, those memory foam futon backers could add to our guests' comfort while providing some soundproofing as well. Then again, living in modern Japan, do most people have a true expectation of privacy?"

"Noper. That's why we'll have it as an advertising point. But anyway, it's not what I meant. I was talking about the durability of the floors themselves. Some couples are going to be in a rush. No sense finding out about cave-ins and splinters right after they get hot and heavy, right?"

"You don't mean…?"

"Fraid so, Bro—you and me have got to hit the futons!"

_To be sure, I called Naru, setting up for her student classes. In short, bad idea for her nerves, good idea for insurance purposes._

_So we hit the futons._

"Me on you!"

"You on me!"

"Simultaneous!"

"Faint forwards!"

"Faint back!"

"Stumble!"

"Trip!"

"Drop Me!"

"I'll Drop You!"

"Now-"

"Mitsu! That's enough—we've been through every room. We know which ones need work, in terms of floor integrity."

Mitsu looked at the living room as they descended the stairs.

"Would a ceiling fan be in order? Maybe a series of small ceiling fans?"

Keitaro ached all over from their simulated falls—some not so simulated.

"Do you sit up nights thinking of improvements to the Sou?"

"Yeah-it's my job now, right? Now—outside, a secondary screen for the onsen, since all guys are like you…but not as sweet or nice. I am trying, Bro."

He put his hand on her shoulder, and smiled.

"You're doing a wonderful job. You've spotted out cracks and gaps and just plain little things that neither Auntie or me caught—maybe even some things that got by Grandma."

She closed her eyes, looking almost hurt rather than praised.

"I want you to take me seriously, Bro. I have a lot to make up for."

Unable to take it anymore, Keitaro simply asked what was on the mind of all at the Hinata-Sou.

"What happened to you, after we fought?"

She tried to be noncommittal.

"I grew the hell up, Ok? End of story."

"Is it?"

She turned around and looked away.

"You're the ones who laid down the terms. Get responsible or get out. I chose answer number one."

Just as quickly, she hugged a man she ended up loving so much, she engaged in the ultimate hare-brained scheme to snag him.

"It was just an epiphany, all right? I saw the need to put Kitsune away, along with my toys and beer bottles."

_Whatever happened out there shook her badly. So badly she won't tell anyone about it. Mitsune 'Mitsu' Konno is hard-working, focused, dedicated, and determined to be taken seriously._

_But I can't help but hope that Kitsune is still in there. I kind of miss her._

_I ordered her to take at least an hour's rest. She's been a real trooper. But it's like Granpa Awa always said to my father, the truly dedicated can easily become the fanatic, and the fanatic always crashes and burns. I wish I'd known him. Auntie says he was a wonderful man. He died not long after her parents. She said that played a part in shutting her down emotionally. That makes me sad for her. It's funny that we're so much closer now that she's no longer living in the Sou, but she said it's like when were kids. It gives us something to look forward to._

_Mutsumi surely remembers those times. I just never realized how well._

Keitaro saved his document.

"Comparing Napoleon in Russia to Alexander at the Indian Border is not as easy as it would seem, at first glance."

Mutsumi leaned over him from behind, as always, part of her arriving first and pushing against him.

"Keitaro, could you look at something of mine?"

Despite himself, a flash-image of Mutsumi suddenly pulling off her blouse shot into his mind.

*Does she phrase things that way on purpose?*

**Don't be an idiot** is what Naru had told him. **Forget pervert. You are a male, and my sisters are hot. Whatever they kick up, you give to me. I may as well get something from the way they shamelessly flirt with you.**

"Okay, Mutsumi."

She had a small folding table set up, and something covered by a tarp.

"When I whip this off, this is going to be big!"

*Yeah. It's on purpose. Who's the pervert around here, anyway?*

The cloth came off, and a small-scale model of the Hinata-Sou was revealed. Finely carved and fairly well-detailed, all it lacked was paint.

"When I was a little girl in kindergarten, I saw a poster which showed the footsteps from there to college. It stuck with me, and while trying to start my first class project, I realized all our footsteps were right here at the Sou."

Also carved were little figures of all of them, regulars and notable visitors alike. All except one.

"It's awesome, Mutsumi—really. But where's Grandma?"

Indeed, all of them were there, including three smaller figures of himself, Naru and Mutsumi as children in the sandbox. But Hinata Urashima was nowhere to be seen. Mutsumi closed her eyes.

"I can't see her, Kei. For some reason, I can't see her."

She opened them again, and forced a smile.

"So I decided to carve an extra one of you and me in a recurring activity."

"Us? Doing what?"

This time, her blouse coming off was no daydream. Her hands pulled him forward.

"Guess. "

_She *got* me. She was wearing her bikini top underneath her blouse—not that my face knew any different. For some reason, not being able to see Grandma as she so clearly saw the rest of us bothered her—maybe even pushed her into pulling that stunt._

_God help me, I wish she hadn't been wearing that top. Naru, if you ever read this, I mean no harm—but sometimes I do think of each of our sisters in that way, and just slightly regret closing the door on possibilities—but I accept that this is what I have done, because the door I did open contained the greatest treasure behind it. _

_Speaking of treasures, one pile of gold keeps getting bigger and brighter, and intent on showing me that she is in fact becoming a woman. She still wants me to 'make her a woman', but I could never do that. Not just because of loyalty to Naru and the decency not to abuse the affections of a young girl. But because, and someday I will tell her this, she was already more woman than most females will ever be at four times her age, well before we met. Our relationship is evolving into friendship—maybe even best friends. We can talk with each other about nearly anything. But I must be careful. Most best friends aren't as cute as her, and if there is a real danger of me doing something stupid and hurting Naru, it is with Shinobu Maehara._

"What the he-hey are you doing?"

Keitaro had a jar of Dijon mustard, a bar of cheddar cheese, Semolina Bread, and some sunflower oil on the kitchen counter.

"Oh, hi, Shinobu. Just making some toasted cheese for my lunch."

"Like blazes you are. Sempai, sit down, and I'll cook up some fish and some soup."

Keitaro sliced his bread, and then the cheese as thinly as he could.

"I'm good, Shinobu. Seta showed me how to make this over a campfire, and it became a favorite while we camped out at sites."

Shinobu picked up two skillets, and then noisily banged them together.

"Back away from the stove. I won't say it again."

On his own property, by his own tenant, Keitaro had just been told what to do about something very basic. That he cared for this girl made this upset no easier to hold in.

"Or what? You'll hit me in the back of the head?"

Shinobu twirled her skillets.

"If Naru or anyone else laid down terms like that, you'd fall over yourself—and probably my chest—trying to give in fast enough. But I'm just a kid, right?"

Keitaro picked up two empty pots, spinning them around.

"More like brat right now. What's with you? It's just toasted cheese."

His pots deflected her pans in a flurry of Teflon-coated stainless steel.

"Keep it down in there!"

The dueling pair put the cookware aside.

"Sorry. Mitsu!"

Each seized a spatula. Keitaro stood poised for battle. Shinobu prepared for the fight.

Then, each of them realized they were holding a spatula. She sat down, dejected but happily not crying.

"You won't be mine. We won't ever kiss or make love. Our children will call the other aunt or uncle, instead of Mother and Father. I'm getting good with that—really."

She looked him in the eye.

"But would you at least let me be the one that feeds you? If nothing else, can you do that for me?"

Keitaro mussed her hair a bit, then kissed her on the cheek.

"No-I will cook for you."

And when the two sandwiches were on their plates, the dear friends ate and talked.

"I so want this date with Arlo to go right. He's the first boy I've noticed since I realized we were never going to be. Plus, he seems nice."

"It will go right, Shinobu."

"Oh, Sempai—I'm a nervous mess. I can't be this nervous when he comes over on Tuesday."

He smiled.

"I know a quick way to work off some of that tension."

"You don't mean…"

"You'll do it or I'll make you do it, Maehara-San!"

Naru walked in from morning classes.

"Hey, all—what's to eat-"

She looked and was shocked to see her fiancé and her younger 'sister' dueling it out with spatulas.

"I really have to watch those two."

_I ended the day with a report to Auntie, who is trying like blazes to nail Seta down on a permanent residence, at least for Japan. Dearly though I love them both, I hope that they are not what Naru and I will become as the years go by. Then again—we could do a lot worse._

"How about a houseboat?"

Haruka rolled her eyes.

"I do not want a house in motion."

"We could get time-share on a series of apartments near the heart of Tokyo itself."

"How near?"

"Actually, it's a little place called Maple Inn near Kanagawa. Owners have had some rotten luck. That's near, right?"

"Like the New Jersey Shore is to Midtown Manhattan."

"Exactly!"

"How do you actually find any artifacts with that sense of direction?"

Seta stopped and shook his head.

"Finding a new place to live and stay after each expedition has always been part of the fun."

Haruka remembered the baby inside her, and pushed away a pack of cigs.

"That was when things were up in the air. That was when we were up in the air. Even if we fly around, Nori-Chan—I want a nest to come back to."

"How about just crashing at the Sou when we're in-country?"

"No! I won't burden the kids with a family that should be able to fend for itself."

"Who'll take care of the place when we're abroad?"

"We'll just ask the kids."

Seta rolled his eyes. Haruka stood firm.

"There's a big difference between asking them to check in on an empty house they can choose to stay in and taking on four or more houseguests with little or no notice."

Seta conceded, at least partially.

"Prices and availability will be a factor. We may end up fairly far from the Sou."

She kissed him.

"As long as it's ours, and someplace we can get Sarah and the baby into school in quick order."

He chuckled.

"We sure had fun making that baby."

She grinned.

"This place may not have an onsen, but there is the bathtub!"

The newlies stripped down and ran for the bath, jumping in with relish.

Ten seconds later, a dripping wet girl of about ten years holding a towel came out of that same room wearing a large frown.

"I'd leave, but someone is gonna have to protect that kid from this family of freaking PERVERTS!"

Wrapping the towel around herself, she opened the bathroom door one last time, and shouted anew.

"AND BY THE WAY-IT'S CALLED A TRIM-TRY IT OUT SOMETIME, THE TWO OF YOU!"

She walked off, muttering.

"-starting to think Kei-Kun and Naru-Chan were the normal ones."

BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA

The woman with silver hair wearing a pair of classic aviator goggles called the meeting to order.

"We of the California Amelia's Dream Club are pleased to have with us today one of our international members. Mrs. Hinata Urashima exemplifies our founding principle, that had the great Ms. Earhart lived on, she would have kept on flying. We don't let the preconceived notions of others dictate our sense of adventure. Mrs. Urashima?"

The diminutive figure made the podium and began to speak.

"Please, it's merely Hina. I was told there might be questions?"

"Hina? How many times around is it for you?"

"This is my second time traveling the world—the first time without my granddaughter Kanako, who has reconnected with her birth mother, a Kitsun—I'm sorry, a kitchen designer."

"Hina? What's your proudest accomplishment?"

"As an aviator? Sighting the Southern Cross. I felt something stir then, that I have not since my dear Awa left this world. But personally—well, my one grandson has become engaged to his childhood sweetheart, and continues to care well for the lives and souls of young ladies I regard as being his sisters. My granddaughter, whom I raised as my own, has married recently and has just announced my promotion to great-grandmother. In addition, my two grandchildren have renewed their deep sustaining friendship from when they were small. They even like to tease that there is something going on between them. Not that I want great-grandchildren quite that badly."

The older ladies all chuckled. One last question came up.

"North, South or East?"

"East, for now. I plan to spend three days in Las Vegas, three more in New Orleans, three in Atlanta, hit the International Skee-Ball Competition in Atlantic City on the 9th, and, let's see…"

She checked her itinerary and flight plan.

"…yes, I thought so. I plan to take an aerial tour of New York City on the morning of September 11th."

THE HINATA-SOU

The women all came running for their man, upon hearing him cry out from the bedroom. The one who had won his heart entered their room, stayed in about a minute, then came back out.

"He's fine. I think he's been over-studying, even by my standards."

Mitsu shook her head.

"Is that even possible? Then again, he did say that he wanted to ace everything from now on, the better to help all of us get in."

Motoko looked concerned.

"He leads a very rich full week. He is strong, but perhaps something has to give. Though Su's lessons without him, I cannot imagine."

Su peeked in.

"Onii-Chan looks pale. Naru, may I lie next to him?"

"That's a great idea, Su. Hug the stuffings out of him. Shinobu—you too, okay?"

"Sempai—is Sempai alright? I gave him a hard time before."

Naru mock-punched the girl's arm.

"If he can take me, he can take you. Now get in there."

As the group dispersed, Naru pulled Mutsumi aside.

"Naru? What's going on?"

"Just now? He cried out one word before going incoherent on me."

"And that word was?"

Naru seemed hesitant to say it.

"Grandma."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_Waking up with my face in Shinobu's chest and Su clambered over my crotch brought back old memories, but luckily, we all pulled back before we were found out. Shinobu just smiled and said that as long as I was all right, her chest could take it. Su just wouldn't stop hugging me. I don't know what we're going to do about her time machine. Motoko and I should just order her to destroy it-but this is a wonder of the world-or a doomsday device._

_I wish Grandma would call. I would just feel better if I could hear her voice. But I don't worry. We will all hear from her, probably before two weeks is gone. Right now, she has a plane to fly, and I have enough on my plate—including helping Shinobu calm her nerves for her dinner date with Arlo. Kami, watch over all the people I love—but most especially my Grandma._

_Note to self : When she does call, ask her about Granpa's war service._

**END JOURNAL FOR AUGUST 31****ST****, 2001**


	2. Chapter One Datezilla

**Chapter One – Datezilla 2001 (Originally Dateira Millennium)**

_**AUGUST 11**__**TH**__**, 1945**_

Awa Urashima cried out.

"Kameha—meha!"

His friend nodded.

"Excellent, Urashima. Yes, that was the name of the Hawaiian King, prior to the coming of the Americans. You know your history."

Masi Fudo looked out at the horizon.

"History we will soon join. I am pleased for this opportunity to serve my liege, but I wish it were not so impersonal. I would like to see the faces of the Americans I dispatch."

Urashima's prior playful tone vanished.

"In the afterlife, you will see them all as they bow down before you in acknowledgement of your victory. That is, provided you can discern one of their ugly faces from another."

The slightly younger man seemed offended.

"Is it necessary to denigrate them? Is it necessary to actually hate your enemy, in order to do what we must? When my time comes, I will ride the Breath Of God into their ships, and they will attempt to thwart me before I can do this. I need only survive long enough to let gravity guide my passage into His Presence. If a stick jammed into the throttle would do as well, even I would not be necessary. But I am, and I accept my role as well as the enemy's role in trying to keep me back. I will not hate them for trying to keep their ships well, and their friends alive."

Urashima stepped uncomfortably close to Fudo.

"Then hate them for their bombing runs, that have made a ruin of our beautiful lands."

"I hate the bombs, and I hold contempt for any American who showed thoughtless glee at such a thing. Yet how many of our bombs have I cheered? This war is a brutal thing. They have been brutal thugs, as have we. I will ask for the Breath Of God to guide me, but I am not at all certain Kami will lend this to me."

"How can you say such a thing?"

Fudo thought of his cousin Akira, a pacifist who had been executed some time back.

"If Kami favored us, then how is it the Americans draw so close? If Kami favored us, then why do we not have a weapon capable of wiping away an entire city in one stroke?"

Before Urashima could react, a voice less coherent than either of theirs intruded.

"Don't either of you get it? It's over. It's over if we go up and over and down in those planes, and if we don't? It's still over. Heh! Better learn English—and our young women better learn the exchange rate!"

Daisaku Kusama was laughing heartily at his own joke. Fudo was nervous, and Urashima was not laughing at all.

"I will you give you one brief chance to withdraw those hateful sick words, Kusama!"

Kusama, who had apparently found some sake prior to that he was to be given before his first and last flight, shrugged.

"I will soon die because this is my Emperor's wish—or is it Tojo's? Anyway, I will die, and some Americans who are probably just as hungry for some shapely female companionship will die with me. Maybe we'll all haunt women's onsens together-maybe some of those American cheer girls' showers. Just so long as it's not the English, with their warm beer. Even in Hell, they must serve it cold. Anyway, let's make it clear. I'm dying to kill those Americans. I am not dying to stop them, because they are coming anyway. This whole thing, this invoking of the Kamikaze? A Noh play, staged so a group of old men, failed conquerors all, can feel like they're doing something. But this time, God's Breath is blowing in the opposite direction. And it's blowing back every last thing we've done right on us. Maybe someday, someone they weren't expecting will kick the Americans' asses. But today, it's us. So men of Japan, learn to drop your weapons and raise your arms, and women, learn to raise your skirts and drop your drawers, because the Yanks are coming, the Yanks Are Coming…"

Urashima fell upon Kusama in a blind fury. Brought before his superiors, he was still enraged.

"He is to be permitted to fly?"

"The prisoner will remain silent!"

The higher-ranking officer shushed the guard.

"Urashima, a wastrel fool like Kusama serves a purpose. These men are about to die. Of course they have doubts. That cannot be avoided, especially in ones so young and untested. So let Kusama say the things that are on all their minds. Once out in the open, these fears and doubts can be confronted and left behind. Kept inside, they may cause hesitation when fortitude is called for."

Urashima bristled, but did not contradict his superior.

"Am I still permitted to fly after my transgression?"

"Yes. For you are Kusama's opposite number. Do you see that noble flag, Awa Urashima? That it continues to be ours will be determined by the will and courage of young men such as yourself."

When Urashima had left for an enforced bow and handshake with his squad-mate, the officer went to see his superior.

"The matter has been settled. Actually fewer problems with this lot. Sir—what word is there?"

The older officer had as much of the hard stuff in him as Kusama, but knew how to handle it.

"To hear it said, either the Emperor is a prisoner of the generals, or he has just escaped them."

"Is there any chance of the sorry order being issued before-?"

Another glass was poured, and offered to the younger man.

"You have come to care for those boys. This is not unexpected. But know that, if I received that final order here and now, my last act would still have to be sending them out immediately. They have been primed to die. Some like that hothead you just tasked are even anxious for it. They would not wish to return having not taken that last flight. One man I know of who suffered engine failure begged to be placed in another plane when he was recovered. His Lieutenant said that he was either cursed or a coward and clapped him in irons. Before his next successful flight, he filled his cockpit with grenades as well. That, my dear boy, is what we have awoken in these children. It will not be put out, even if his Majesty personally tells them to stand down."

Facing the stars, Awa Urashima shook his fist at the sky.

"I will achieve my goal, which is my dream, and I will permit no one and nothing to stand in my way, even to the fates themselves!"

A good distance away, a girl dutifully emptied endless bedpans and chamber-pots filled by fighting men now helpless to do so themselves. The head nurse called to her subordinate.

"Both cities—she was in both cities when the bright flashes came, yet she shows no signs of the sickness. Why do we have to deal with her?"

"She does do her job well, and without complaint."

"Oh? Well, she is not to be permitted such arrogant serenity in the midst of all this. Assign her also the duty of cleaning the men's backsides, after they have filled the bedpans. Put her on whatever might impact that ridiculous durability of hers."

Before long, illness would take the increasingly bitter woman who once boasted that the only soldiers who would ever see her wards would be captured enemy prisoners. Until then, little Hinata's lot was to be a hard one.

_**TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4**__**TH**__**, 2001**_

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, NARU NARUSEGAWA**

_There was a struggle. It was hard, it was intense, and it got very personal. When it was all done, I was the winner. But the winner was not at all gracious in victory, and the losers were not good about explaining why there had been a struggle in the first place. For you see, the winner felt like she had already struggled against her own worst nature, and that of the man she loved, to even get to a certain point. Why, she wondered, did she also have to war with her own sisters, who did their best to shut her out, then claimed they knew this wasn't possible? In the end, that winner was as contemptuous and dismissive of her sisters as she had been of her man. For she—for I had never realized that each had undergone her own struggle with this nerve-ridden thief of hearts. A fierce warrior once thought to have no use for men suddenly wanted to be used by him. An indulgent sake-loving trickster was ready to give up what she had to in order to rise up in his eyes. The other three? Well, who didn't know? Mutsumi let him fall into her chest without so much as a cheek pull. In Su's case, the only thing that shocked us was the level of disconnect between her power as princess in Molmol and the realization that we might not like being played with as she made her play for him. Be careful who you say 'all's fair' to is the lesson there. Even Auntie was a player of sorts, in that I doubt any winner who didn't treat her nephew right would survive, including me. Even the woman legally barred from seeking him wanted that goofy smile aimed in her direction, wanted that sweet grateful blush he gets each time he sees flesh that by now he's seen more times than his own. _

_So why did I win? I don't know. Did I deserve to win? Probably not. I only know that I did win, and I am now prepared to fight every woman—and anyone else—who tries to keep me from his side. My sisters took me by surprise in Molmol. No one else ever will. Except maybe—her._

_The devotion she shows to him often shames me. She has treated him all along the way I wish I had. I know that my victory broke her heart more than any other, and she is the one I worried about the most when he first showed up. Now I almost wish he had been just lecherous enough to make a mistake with her. I would have forgiven him by now, and she would be over him. Any man who turned her down for not being pure would have been rightly judged as insane._

_But Shinobu Maehara loves Keitaro Urashima, and vice-versa, and their decency and restraint means that this love is idealized and enshrined forever. Ours will have to be rough and tumble, fought out in the arena of life. Theirs gets to be this wonderful thing that could have been._

_Yet it is a wonderful thing, and I think the fact that he keeps this girl as his friend is part of what makes me love him. It is for her that he kept trying for University, and it is for him that her puppy love became fierce enough to gamble her feelings on a very stupid, poorly thought plan hatched by two sisters she knew better than to listen to._

_This night, she has a date with the first boy she has even looked at since her dream moved from possibility to could-have-been. He's a good kid, from what I've heard and seen, and his mother could be called an elder sister of those here at the Hinata-Sou. So it is we all wish her well, both we violent girls and the boy who passed up his own chance to be her first in order to be her ally._

_Understandably, she is anxious as this date approaches tonight. That is not the problem._

_The problem? In her anxiety, sweet little Shinobu is turning into a vicious little bitch. _

She got off the phone, smiling.

"That's right, Arlo-San. I've decided to give tomato gravy and pasta a try for tonight. Good! See you then."

Shinobu had all her friends seated before her in the living room as she walked over. Outwardly, she appeared calm.

"I need you all to be…"

Su's hand shot up.

"Ohh! Oooh! On our best behavior?"

Shinobu was calm but not smiling as she responded.

"I was going to say I need all of you to not be yourselves."

Before any of them could respond to this utter impertinence, she kept on. She stopped at each of her 'siblings'.

"Motoko, where his hands might wander is my business. I don't need my honor defended. You may need to call in Tsuruko, though, should you cross me on this."

"Sempai Naru—I am requesting that you allow for his nerves and possible clumsiness. Unless he pretends to be a doctor and offers you a physical—do nothing. Even then—Do Nothing. I'll throw him out. Don't make me go all frying pan on you. You wouldn't like me when I'm all frying pan. "

"Kaolla Su-I can assure you he has no interest in your inventions, or in having any portion of his anatomy struck by any portion of yours. If he offends some Molmolian custom we all never heard of—or if he turns out to be your island's prophesied champion—keep it to yourself. At the first sign of a mecha-Turtle of any kind, I will regard Molmol and Japan as being at war."

"Mutsumi, anything more than a handshake, and we will find out if they really do bounce."

"Mitsu—just don't—whatever it is, just don't."

Her gaze then turned to the man she loved.

"Sempai-is there any pressing reason for Arlo-San to know that we've been in many an embarrassing situation together? No? Then don't bring it up. Remember that game of 'beach ball' we once played? I can play a lot harder."

She resumed smiling before retreating to her kitchen and adding one last thing.

"I'm going to cook tonight's meal. Remember who cooks nearly all the meals around here. Meals that can suddenly gain—extra ingredients."

**JOURNAL**

_I kind of wish she had just whacked us all with the frying pan. It would have hurt less. How dare she threaten any of us, especially Keitaro? I'll take the verbal thrashing I have coming for my treatment of him, but if that little girl ever goes there again, I'm asserting property rights. Maybe I'll even make her aware that a lady can feel something down there, if you apply enough force. It'll never be what a guy would feel, but it can still be special._

_But we all do love her, and the one who loved her best of all sprang to her defense after she left._

"I know that she's having-"

"A psychotic break with reality?"

"Mitsu! Shinobu is trying-"

"Is she ever."

"Narusegawa! Shinobu is asking for-"

"And she will get it. If you will not make her a woman, Urashima, perhaps my blade..."

"Motoko! Ladies, what she needs-"

"You can provide her, Kei. We'll hold her down and deny everything to her parents. We'll tell everyone she's smiling because of passing gas."

"Mutsumi—everyone—she's just nervous because she wants this date to go well."

Su shook her head.

"She's being a tyrant, and you taught me that was wrong. Well, is it?"

**JOURNAL **

_He's no longer scared of the super-strong woman. He's no longer in danger of an embolism around the super-boobied woman. He has the trickster jumping hoops to get his approval, and the warrior who once threatened his manhood now plays a daily game with him whose goal is to get her robes off—and I'm not even sure she uses a body wrap anymore._

_But it's the two little girls that own him. The one, he can't help but defend, even when she's nearly indefensible. The other he desperately wants to be an example to. The princess wants to be his little sister, and his little sister wants to be his princess. Thing is, I called him Onii-Chan before I called him Kei-Kun, in that old sandbox, and I am set to be his queen. But—I can't deny them the kind of confidence-building, stabilizing influence Seta was on me—well, he built my confidence, anyway. Stability and Noriyasu Seta should probably not be mentioned in the same sentence—good luck on getting him into that house, Auntie._

_Anyway, he told Su to be patient a little longer, and then headed for classes. He and I have two alternating days, two concurrent days this time around, chock-full of classes so we can leave the weekends free for upgrade work on the Sou._

_That leaves me to keep a lid on the boiling pot that is Shinobu._

Naru entered the kitchen and was immediately placed under assault.

"Taste this one."

"Now this one."

"Now that one."

"Now-"

"Shinobu, let me breathe something other than tomato sauce!"

"Tomato Gravy. No real gourmand of Italian cooking ever calls it sauce."

"Ummm—no offense, but this isn't terribly Japanese."

The girl glared at her sempai.

"I know Japanese dishes like the back of my hand, except for blowfish, which I'm not trained for. There's no challenge there anymore. Those grand dishes will always be my first love, but it was time I moved on."

There was so very much psychology in that statement, Naru felt compelled to sidestep it entirely.

"You know, I tickled him relentlessly, until he gave in and rated the ladies of the Sou for various aspects of their bodies and beauty. I have his heart and soul, so I told him to be honest. He gave Motoko best overall body because of how limber she keeps, Su had cutest face, Mutsumi duh, Mitsu got smile, and you-"

Shinobu began to shake.

"Yes?"

"Best butt. Period."

"Really? I mean-wow."

Naru put a finger under her chin.

"Now, if you should ever—EVER—again make a speech like the one you just did? I will bronze and mount that butt on my bedroom wall, so he can always remember it. Maybe in our old age, he can use it as a turn-on."

Shinobu pulled away.

"I suppose you are the only one who's allowed to be upset by thwarted plans and goals thrown off course."

"Noooo you don't, Maehara-San. My behavior, Su's behavior, Mitsu's, whoever—does not justify tearing the guts out of people who haven't even sat down to the dinner you're warning them not to wreck. Your plans and goals haven't even launched yet."

Shinobu stirred the gravy, then folded her arms.

"This is the Hinata-Sou. We could be invaded by someone's secret family member. We could be attacked by Seta-Sama's college archeology rival. All the pettankos whose busts Mutsumi absorbed to achieve her dirigible status could come seeking redress. Or Kenny Sakata. Or Auntie drops off Sarah, who then spends my perfect evening hitting my date with the Rosetta Stone or the Ten Commandments. Or maybe Amalla Su decides to steal Kei away this time. Maybe Mitsu's real mother is a real Kitsune, and the shock of the revelation drives her inside herself."

"What kind of crap have you been reading?"

"Sempai Naru—ask yourself. How many pointless interruptions, planned and otherwise, have you and Sempai Kei had to endure over the past three years?"

"Does that include kawaii-ambush skillet-strikes from behind?"

"You know damn well what I mean."

Naru withdrew from the pointless argument after giving her answer.

"As many as we had to—and then however many more past that. Those interruptions are called daily life, Shinobu."

**JOURNAL**

_How does he always know just how to handle her? Simple answer—those two are cut from the same cloth. Timid as all get out, until they reach their full height. I may not have to worry about them climbing into bed together, after all. Don't like charges repel, when up close?_

_I pulled out of that Twilight Zone and decided to check on the relatively saner sisters._

_I think her ponytail may be pulled too tight._

Up on the rooftop, Naru found herself assaulted by music. The bikinied Motoko did her rolls, jumps and stretches to it.

"Aren't you afraid of being seen in that skimpy thing?"

Motoko answered, while never interrupting her routine.

"The only one I care about who might see me like this has seen me in less than this, and his blush makes me feel-sexy, for want of a better term. In any event, he is not here."

"Ummm-I tried talking to her."

"You have my pity, then."

"Look, we all-almost all—spent the last three years beating on a guy out of some misplaced feelings we were in denial about. Maybe our room to dump on Shinobu's snit isn't as great as we'd like."

Motoko sliced at the air with her arms.

"The difference is, we didn't mean it. She on the other hand, meant every word. Naru, I wish to discuss neither Shinobu nor your man, for right now. You may listen to the music as I go, but I need to do this. My tension level is too great. Since I cannot kill one friend nor jump the bones of another, I need this. Alright?"

Naru nodded, and listened to the music Motoko had taken from Su's Western karaoke selections.

*…so have you got yourself a brand new baby? Don't tell me maybe-is it so—I got to know—what's it gonna be-Her Or Me?...*

*…I've got your picture, She's Got You…*

*…you don't have to say you love me, just be close at hand, you don't have to stay forever, I will understand…*

*…not to be the crying kind; not to be the girl you left behind; You gotta go where you wanna go and do what you wanna do…*

*…walk right back to me this minute, bring your love to me don't send it—I'm so lonesome every day…*

When Motoko was done, she asked Naru a question.

"Does my choice of music selections seem like ones that might inspire?"

Naru raised an eyebrow.

"They may inspire me to put a restraining order on you."

**JOURNAL**

_To be fair, Motoko admitted her feelings in public and is not ashamed of them any longer. I suppose that's a form of balance. On the other hand, while newly focused, Mitsu seems like someone badly out of balance._

"We might need to tell some of our more conservative guests that you two are already married. And bathing suits in the onsen for those months. We might also need to gently inform any family members that those months won't be a good time. And we should rubberize the corners of that old sandbox. People are just so litigious today."

Mitsu was being so deadly serious, Naru felt she had no choice but to seize an opening.

"We never used rubber as kids. Of course, Keitaro promised to marry both of us if anything should happen. Liddo-Kun was to perform the ceremony."

A light glare emerged from the new Ryobo's eyes. Naru challenged it with more foolishness.

"So you don't think he would have married us?"

Mitsu slapped down her pad of paper, chock full of random improvement notes.

"This is about making this Inn a going concern again. Forget Kei. We are all of us unlucky, and you know damn well everything we overlook will explode in our faces."

"Sounds like fun. In fact, it is. Just last night, Kei and I-"

"I was thinking of a continental breakfast. Some hard boiled eggs, some toast and jam, some coffee and tea. Won't cost us much, and it'll make the guests feel like they're really getting something."

Naru stared dumbly ahead of her. Mitsu shrugged.

"Any reasonable suggestions that don't involve adverting your sex life?"

Naru sighed.

"Have we asked ourselves where these customers are likely to come from? Are they Tokyo residents looking for a weekend hideaway? Are they rural folk looking for a halfway house while touring the big cities? Tokyo U rich brats? Americans, Chinese? That could potentially tell us a lot."

As Mitsu gained a panicked look at hearing Naru's question, she began to jot ever more notes at kilometers per minute. Naru gave up when she realized neither hard liquor nor Keitaro's lap had ever held Mitsu's attention like this new notion did.

**JOURNAL**

_Okay. It is possible that, faced with the wrath of all her friends and the prospect of indebted homelessness, Mitsune realized that she couldn't be Kitsune and just decided to go super-serious until she's all caught up and trained at the job. But I'm not buying it. Even as a pretense, Kitsune could never keep this up 120%. Something out there scared the trickster right out of her. She won't tell me what that was, or even confirm that there was something. Her old best friend needs to talk to one of her new best friends._

As Naru scrubbed her back, Mutsumi was not giving up very much.

"She's not sick. No one is threatening her. No one hurt her. She isn't pregnant, and she doesn't have any more debts than the ones we know of. All she's done to me is pepper me with questions about calculating cooling costs during the worst of the summer days and nights. Naru, if there is something to talk about, she will tell you when she's ready."

Naru turned and got the same attention back again.

"She's not herself. No one has to remind her of her duties anymore. She's made no snarky remarks for over a week. She hit the futons with Kei, and never once tried anything. She's lived off what's in the fridge and some instant ramen. Running this place has become the whole of her existence."

Mutsumi shrugged, her hair for once bouncing more than her chest.

"You mean, exactly like Kei said it would?"

Naru got up and wrapped herself with a towel.

"If you knew something, would you tell me?"

"If I knew something, I would tell you to not worry so much. Are you really that anxious to see Kitsune again?"

Naru smiled.

"Maybe. But I'm more anxious for Mitsu to be herself, and right now it's like she's trying to be someone else."

Mutsumi not only chose not to dispute this, but changed the subject entirely.

"Naru? About tonight's dinner?"

"Yes?"

Mutsumi poked a finger in her oldest friend's chest.

"Tell Kei to rein that brat in. If she starts in again like she did this morning, I won't be the only one letting her have it. She was way out of line. My grandmother would have smothered her face in her chest for speaking like that."

"She would? Did that make her grandkids behave?"

Mutsumi shook her head.

"Well, it worked for her granddaughters. The grandsons seemed to act up worse."

**JOURNAL**

_Shinobu is not winning any popularity contests with her new book about how to gut friends and defenestrate people. I've been where she is. A large part of the ultra-rotten (as opposed to just plain rotten) treatment I gave Kei early on came in part from feeling like he had messed with my master plans. But she's on such a short fuse, I actually welcomed inspecting Su's newest invention._

_Then I learned what it was. Implications much, anyone? Kei told me, but I had to see it for myself._

Naru stared at the large orb-like device.

"A time machine. You built a time machine."

_**Dinosaurs walking like Humans. The Roman province of Nihanus with Tokyopolis as its capitol. Headlines like 'Yamamoto Beats Truman For US Presidency'. Films like 'Terminator 2' starring Jet Li and Eve Plumb. A world where Keitaro was a young wizard who—**_

_*Cut the crap, Narusegawa. Just talk to Su.*_

"Su? Have you actually traveled through time yet?"

"Oh, no. That'd be too dangerous."

Naru prepared to breathe a sigh of relief. It seemed Su was learning of certain things, like not doing something just because you can.

"I mean, air pressure in a past time period could be different, or you could carry a cold virus that mutated in the present but no one in the past has a defense against."

_*Well, that's something like what we wanted.*_

"So it can only look at the past?"

Su pointed at the viewscreen.

"I deliberately keep the portal at a microscopic level and then look through it with magnification. Here!"

Naru saw a young man enter the Sou, and then strip down and enter the Onsen. She saw the stunned look on his face as a nude young woman sat beside him, calm and serene-just not for long. Naru's mouth opened in the present, but Su made a motion urging her to be quiet.

_*You two idiots. You don't know what's ahead of you. I could save you so much trouble—or cause even more. How would I convince myself? I could be so stubborn back then. Heh—not like now, right?*_

Su shut it off, then began to form a frown.

"I think Onii-Chan is a little afraid of it."

"Well, Kei-Kun is a very moral person. I think he worries what less moral people might do with such a powerful device."

Naru was not merely reflexively defending her man in saying this. She had come to realize, even before the two had finally started becoming serious, that Keitaro must in fact be quite moral. One man in a houseful of girls could easily have gotten away with a lot more than just punished peeps and awkward collisions of flesh. Especially when two of those girls were young and easily swayed by him, one was not shy around him or about loving him, and one was so fearful of her emotions for him, the right gesture could have had deflowered samurai as easily as castrated ronin. Naru wasn't sure where she fit in there, but with so many awkward moments between them, she wasn't sure what she would have done had he just once kept on going. Ironically, probably only intercourse-skittish Mitsune would have been a definite no.

_*We could have ended up as one Kei's stupid ecchi manga, the ones where the one guy nails every woman he knows, relation or age notwithstanding. Then again, the thought of Shinobu crying out 'Sempai always falls asleep right after!' probably kept him back as much as any morals.* _

"Su? Can you scan any moment in history you like?"

"So far. Why, Onee-Chan?"

_*Oh, this thing is so dangerous. But I can't resist.*_

"Show me Grandma Hina-in 1945."

Su tried this, but had to shut the portal off again.

"Huh-lights and radio interference. What were those two bright flashes?"

"Ummm—what was the date, Su?"

"August of that year."

_*Was Grandma present when the bombs fell? And am I standing next to something as earth-shaking as either Fat Man or Little Boy?*_

A new idea struck Naru.

"Su-Chan, show me Molmol on the morning of the date we left for home. Early morning, like between 5 and 6 AM. Scan around by that hillside buffet."

"I know that one! They serve the best waffles!"

_*Banana waffles, no doubt. Okay, Urahsimas. Auntie and her nephew like to tease Naru-Chan? Well, next time you start in, I'll have evidence of what you were really doing that morning.*_

Su and Naru saw Haruka and Keitaro jump over a waterfall, laughing and screaming the way some might on a roller-coaster. Smiling, Naru saw Kei emerge in just his underwear and grab some clothes they had stashed aside. Haruka, however, was not wearing a damned thing, and stuck, was aided by her nephew—who for at least a moment was plainly scoping her out, and this was not unwelcomed by the older woman. Su saw this as well.

"I don't blame Onii-Chan for staring. Auntie's boobs must be nearly as big as Mutsumi's. Did she ever feed him with those? Onee-Chan?"

**JOURNAL**

_I held off on telling her to get rid of it, instead recommending she read fictional treatments of time travel for cautionary tales. I couldn't think straight. Suddenly the silly flirtation meant to fluster me and Seta had a component to it that could not be explained away by pranking. A hungry look had passed between them. I suddenly remembered being a child and seeing my playmate summoned away by snapping fingers, and my glare met with a glare of a girl who looked like a giant. I've known all this. But like Shinobu seeing him and me in the clinch, this is raw evidence, and it's a bit harder to take. I didn't hate her. But I needed to call her._

Haruka had almost gotten used to hearing from her former charges on a daily basis. The trick, she knew, was defusing the crisis de jure.

"Naru? Hey, kid, how's tricks? I—should know? What did he tell you about that waterfall? Nothing—like what I was wearing. Naru—Naru stop. I'm not gonna apologize for one of the most tender moments of my entire life. I-of course we're just joking around. Could I ever see us-? Yeah—if we were five years into a Go Nagai apocalypse or something. Look—you have a ki warrior, a fun-loving prankster, a kawaii Near-Yamato Nadeishko, a girl whose IQ lines roughly up with her bust size squared, and an ultra-cute island princess living within a hundred meters of him at all times, and yet you worry about his preggers Christmas Cake of an Auntie?"

Haruka fought back a tear.

"I am not the most beautiful woman you know. I could not have him in a heartbeat-why do you do this to yourself? Geez, that cadre of back-stabbers did their best to beat your time, and he still fought to be with you. Kid, I'm gonna say it bluntly. He could be getting freebies from every last one of us whenever he wanted, and it would still be you. Now, if he didn't tell you and you weren't peeping, how did you find out about-she invented a what? It actually works? It's what she was working on all those times she nearly blew us up? Naru, I understand it's an astounding creation, but hasn't it hit you yet that a girl who wants your man can now change history? She said-that would be cheating. Naru, get that thing dismantled ASAP. Just hearing about it makes my skin crawl. Now, what else goes on?"

"I always pegged Shinobu for a possible Bridezilla. Let Kei take point in slapping her back to reality—you know he's the only one she'll listen to. Mitsu? No, that doesn't sound like her. Me, when I was new on the job, the amount of things I had to do curdled my brain. I sure as hell wasn't seeking out more. If need be, I have a friend she can speak to—let's hope it doesn't come to that. As for Motoko, face it—your guy is her means of loosening up. Mutsumi said what? Heh. Maybe she's taking too much iron, now. No-don't apologize for calling. Whatever burdens you all put on me, I'll repay come summer when we dump Sarah in your laps."

"I'm-right—here! Geez—doesn't Naru-Chan have a life of her own?"

Haruka heard something on the other end, and smiled.

"I'll tell her that. Toodles, kid!"

Sarah saw the wicked smile.

"Mom?"

"Naru said something about a birthmark…"

Cries of '**Traitor**!' filled the area surrounding the rented home.

**JOURNAL**

_Thank God she always keeps her head. I wish we could all be as free as Kuro and Tama-Chan. I thought Kanako's cat would fight with our turtle, or worse. But Kuro finds a perch on his shell, and off they go flying, exploring the forest. Normally, Shinobu tosses them a snack about this time of day. But today, their flight path avoids the kitchen entirely. Animals instinctively know when natural disasters are about to happen._

"But everyone does that!"

"Get Out Of My Kitchen!"

"Shinobu, all Su did was dip some bread in the tomato…"

"Get Out Of My Kitchen!"

"Shinobu, this unseemly behavior…"

"Get Out Of My Kitchen!"

Mutsumi stood at the doorway, refusing to even enter. Naru had no such hesitancy, and had cell-phone in hand. She held it near Shinobu.

"Answer it."

Naru's eyes showed no signs that this was a request. Shinobu took the phone.

"What? You don't understand! You can't do that! Don't you dare hang up on…."

Shinobu turned off three of the pots she had on the burners. As soon as the boiling water in the last one was done, she poured out the pasta within to a strainer.

"What time is it?"

Shinobu's question was calm and straightforward. As if to make a point, Mutsumi answered.

"One-Thirty."

"I see. Could someone please wake me up at 4:30? That'll give me enough time to make the garlic bread."

Naru now looked concerned.

"You're going to bed?"

Shinobu refused to meet any of their eyes.

"I've been ordered to take a nap or face having the date cancelled. Excuse me."

She left, looking badly shaken, but not speaking either. Mitsu nodded.

"Good on Bro! He nuked her down to size."

"Interesting. It seems a few words from Urashima can break an iron skillet."

Mutsumi had a definite '_be careful what you wish for_' look of regret on her face.

"How much did it cost him to do that? And how many more times are we going to have to see it happen? She has four or five more teen years yet to come."

"How does Onii-Chan have the power to order her to take a nap?"

**JOURNAL**

_I said it before. Cut from the same cloth. She would never dream of defying Kei-yet. Mutsumi is right. Between throwing in with the others at Molmol, her rampaging snit when we got back, and now this bout with 'Datezilla', Shinobu is turning into a full-on challenge. Worst of all, I know this routine. See, at times, Shinobu behaves just like her Sempai Kei at his best and worst-and other times? She behaves like her Sempai Naru—again at best and worst. Karma or no karma, I do not want to handle myself. I have got to use my power to make her move faster through my unreasoning stage than I did. Because if I can't, then I will follow through with my threat and mount her little ass on the wall. _

_It is a cute one, though. I wonder if he thinks about violating her—that way. Maybe I should cosplay my sisters, to get him worked up—someday. Right now, we both get worked up by looking at the linoleum._

The three hours came and went. Shinobu looked no different, but spoke more calmly.

"I have nothing to say to any of you right now. I don't mean that in a vicious way. I literally am so nervous about this date that I can't think. So please-demand apologies later, and help guide me through this. Because I am so worked up, I can't even cry."

Kaolla Su raised her hand, but the question was a well-thought-out one.

"Are there any things with the food that we should never ever do?"

"Yes. Try using a fork for the pasta instead of sticks. It's traditional."

Mitsu breathed in, trying to keep control when the target was so alluring.

"Do you want to sit next to him?"

"Probably. Let me decide when he gets here."

Mutsumi did not bother to resist a dig.

"Are you sure you're up for this? Are you really ready to deal with what actually happens, and not what you fear might happen? I will not support you if you start accusing again."

"I am ready—and I don't want your support, if I start acting like that again. The sleep helped, so I don't think I will. Please remind me of everything I said later. My mind is already blocking it all out. I should remember it all later."

Motoko also offered a dig.

"It is likely best that you don't."

Since she was presenting way too easy a target, the girls backed off as Shinobu's 'control' came home from classes. Keitaro was almost bowled over by her rushed embrace. His eyes briefly showed signs of air deprivation as they bulged out.

"Sempai, please don't cancel the date—I just got soooo nervous!"

He returned the embrace, while color commentary was offered.

"She did get nervous, Bro. The seismic people called up about a localized Earthquake."

"Indeed, Urashima. My sister called, fearing a rising of dark ki."

"I tried to bounce off her head—but her shakes repelled me!"

"People accused me of becoming a go-go dancer."

When Mutsumi's dig seemed likely to start another round, the ladies learned something of Kei's private rankings, Naru aside.

"You know, one would think that, since she's done cooking and laundry every week out of the kindness of her heart, we could all forgive her having one bad day when something really special is making her nervous. I think one bad thing can easily be put aside."

Mutsumi, still offended from earlier, added on nonetheless.

"One bad thing-except for striking you from behind when pretending to aid Naru's rescue, ditching Naru with the others to get you on Molmol, getting you hit repeatedly when her vague messages went undetected by you, rampaging over lies told in Molmol…"

In that hypothetical ranking, Mutsumi's rank would also be very high, but even she could cross a line.

"Mutsumi?"

"Yes, Kei?"

He pushed her face forward into his chest.

"Let's not talk about getting me beatings, alright?"

Shinobu breathed, looked at Mutsumi and then at all of them.

"I'm a wreck around guys, alright? I tried not to let this get to me, but the more I did, the more it got to me. Plus, you have to admit—disasters around here are not unheard of. I mean, we're all in love with the disaster that came to live with us, three years ago!"

Keitaro kind of glared at her as she went.

_*Dig that hole deeper, Shinobu. That's a girl.*_

"I'm so sorry that I made those vague and some not so vague threats about poisoning your food. But really, was my behavior any harder to tolerate than Sempai Naru's months of obsession over the Todai Exam, her years of sometimes-violent denial over Sempai Kei, and her months of obnoxiously rubbing her victory in our faces?"

Naru whispered to her man.

"You do realize she gets this from your side of the family?"

Kei raised a finger.

"Shinobu—Arlo will be here soon. Garlic Bread?"

She ran off for the kitchen like a shot, after which Kei looked at Mitsu and Mutsumi, nodding.

"Come up with something. Make it awkward-with at least the possibility of pain."

In a fluid motion, the two busty beauties nodded at each other.

**JOURNAL**

_I had to wonder if Shinobu knew what she had lost, when even Keitaro had enough with her. But we would still try our damndest to give her this big moment. And then she would surely pay._

_Then again, her words about the Sou and the course of events would prove prophetic._

Arlo was dressed near to formal, but not so much as to make anyone else feel awkward. Motoko complimented this. He shrugged.

"Non-Formal Dinner at a local inn whose owners you know demands some attention to detail, but not obsession."

They realized that, as the son of a restaurateur, Arlo knew quite a bit about dining etiquette. This status also meant he knew something else, as a thermal-insulated case he produced demonstrated.

"I made beef sauce. Hope that doesn't leave anyone out."

When Shinobu learned of this development, you could have heard a pin drop.

Motoko. _*Impale Me. Impale me now.*_

Mitsu. _*Take me down to a B Plus. Just let this pass—okay a low C. But let it pass anyway.*_

Mutsumi. _*You know, we did make our new Todai oath a respectful one.*_

Su. _*I think I saw a cartoon like this once. The fat caveman found out the short one had eaten a pizza pie meant for all of them. That was funny.*_

Kei. _*Naru, forgive me. I may have to offer to marry her. Then, when she's distracted, you knock her out.*_

Naru. _*Somebody brought food to a Shinobu dinner. Su, hook up the time machine.*_

But Shinobu was confident and even smiling.

"Well, we'll just have to see whose is better. It'll be like a little contest!"

A half an hour later, Shinobu's tomato sauce was mostly untouched, and Arlo's mostly gone. Mitsu tried to be supportive to a crestfallen Shinobu.

"Well, kid—he has spent most of his life working in restaurants. Arlo? What, did this take you all day to make?"

Arlo, who was writing down a banana bread recipe for the monarchs of Molmol, looked up.

"Oh, no. Don't I wish. If I'd had all day, this would have really been one to remember. Nah, this was less than two hours."

The blood vessels in Shinobu's eyes began to expand apace.

"Two-Hours?"

Mutsumi also tried to help, with similar success.

"How much did your mother help you?"

Shinobu seemed to take heart at this. To be outclassed by a restaurant owner was no sin.

"Not at all. I made some fundamental mistakes with this sauce my mother would slap me for. I'm glad you were all so generous towards it. Hey—almost no one tried Maehara-San's sauce."

"Gravy. Shinobu said its tomato gravy."

"No, Su. Only people with stuck-up affectations and huge egos call it gravy. At least that's what the Chefs Association Di Roma says. My Mom was so upset to not crack the top 20 at last year's competition. But she got there with the French Pastries Parade."

Arlo grabbed a piece of bread and tasted Shinobu's sauce. He then grabbed up the pot.

"I know what's wrong. I can fix this."

To the stunned look of all, Arlo entered the kitchen. Chopping sounds were heard.

**JOURNAL**

_To make a long story short, Shinobu's date was a much better cook than her, and had now invaded her kitchen._

_Had he simply tried to mount her on the dinner table, he might have gotten farther. At least then, she would have been curious._

_After beginning his emergency surgery on her sauce, he was escorted out by the girl of his dreams and our nightmares. I told myself the evening had to get better. Yeah. And I'm sure Kei thought 'Well Maybe They'll Only Hit Me That Once'._

"Sorry she kicked you out of the kitchen by you know—kicking you. Twice."

Arlo seemed to have an almost Seta-like calm about such things.

"That wasn't a kick, Mitsu-San. My Mom? Now, she can kick. Oh, it's so good to have a night off. Of course, when I get back, I have to dry-clean all the staff uniforms."

Motoko gulped.

"You mean—you have to drop them off at the dry-cleaners, right?"

"No, Aoyama-San. Mother trained me in all the laundering arts a while back. I still can't do starch quite correctly."

Mutsumi felt her heart threaten to go through even her considerable chest. Shinobu's date was also better at doing laundry.

"So-doing anything else tonight?"

"As a matter of fact, Otohime-San—I plan to get up to see Room 201 before I leave here. I have plans to offer a prayer of thanks there, for an event…"

Shinobu came out of the kitchen, shaking her head.

"You know, it does taste better with the extra cheese…what the hell?"

Arlo was being held fast by Naru and Mitsu, while a third party held a sword at his throat. That party was not Motoko.

"Sempai Kei? Why are you threatening my date's life?"

His eyes were ablaze with rage.

"This pervert wanted to go up to your room! Bragged that he would offer up a prayer of thanks afterward! Let's see him be thankful without any-"

Shinobu pushed them away, and got Arlo out of the line of fire. She then walked up and poked Keitaro in the chest with her finger.

"I count on you to stay sane. You're not like these psycho witches."

"But—but—he said he wanted to go to your room. First date—in front of everybody!"

She rolled her eyes.

"Sempai, Alice-San gave birth to him in my room!"

All three would be defenders of Shinobu's purity went pale.

"That would explain-"

"-a lot."

Mitsu sat back down.

"Damn—that almost made me nostalgic."

Shinobu took Arlo's hand.

"I believe you asked for a dance a few weeks ago."

He smiled, despite the attack.

"I believe you owe me one after that."

"No—if I gave you what you were owed after tonight—we'd have nothing to look forward to."

Su's equipment began to play the instrumental 'MusicBox Dancer', and Shinobu at last seemed to relax. At the end of the tender dance, the doorbell rang. Kei answered and was pushed past by a young man wearing the garb of a monk.

"Maehara-Chan, I have returned to you!"

Shinobu looked him over, up and down.

"Who are you?"

"It is I, Kenichi of Class 7-5! I know that I broke your heart so long ago, but I have returned to fight for it, if I must!"

The overly-dramatic young man pointed at Keitaro and Naru.

"Sir—Madam-I have come to petition you for the hand of your daughter Shinobu."

"Our-"

"-DAUGHTER! Kei, let me at him!"

As Kei tried to keep Naru from strangling this man, Kenichi turned to Shinobu.

"Obviously, your mother still holds a grudge for last time. Is this man your Onii-Chan?"

Arlo looked badly confused.

"I'm her date."

"Whoa-that's a bit rural, not to mention ecchi. To think that my breaking Maehara-Chan's heart made her that desperate."

Mutsumi turned to Mitsune.

"Not too bright, is he?"

Mitsu shook her head.

"I've seen him before—but where?"

Mutsumi had forgotten to take her iron supplement during the day's excitement, and faltered a bit as she turned towards Kenichi.

"Look, kid, you can't just burst in here and…"

Kenichi helped Mutsumi to the couch.

"Maehara-Chan—I think my return is too much for your grandmother to bear."

Mutsumi rose from the couch like a comet, grabbing one of Motoko's weapons.

"Okay-he dies."

"Everyone stop grabbing my swords!"

Su whispered to Motoko.

"Is this whole thing a set-up to teach me some sort of lesson?"

"No, Kaolla Su. I fear that it is not."

"Oh. Could we pretend that it was? It makes more sense that way."

Motoko took control.

"Young man—identify yourself—and only identify yourself. No declarative statements—please, I'm getting a headache."

"Very well. Four years ago this very night, I came here to meet those closest to my beloved Maehara-Chan. But I was only a boy, and the powerful women here caused me to flee in abject terror—especially the one who put me inside-"

Shinobu grabbed her head.

"A giant glass pinball. Oh, why now?"

Su smiled.

"I remember! We had to invent a new rule because of you."

"A rule dictated by Maehara-Chan's broken heart never to speak of me?"

Kei sat down.

"No. A rule suggested by my grandmother's lawyers not to put people inside giant glass pinballs."

Shinobu gingerly approached the former novice monk.

"Kenichi—how shall I put this-I have not thought about you almost since that night, which up until this one, I had the foolishness to believe was the worst one of my entire life. See that man over there? That's my Sempai. That man has been beaten silly, dropped out of moving planes, fired on with missiles, and like that. I once kicked him in the balls. But right now—that man, who has been through so much, is looking on the evening that I'M having with pity. Do you get it?"

"I do, Maehara-Chan."

Kenichi pointed at Arlo.

"You sir-will have to leave. You are bothering Maehara-Chan."

**JOURNAL**

_We sent him flying, and this time, Kei was with us as we did. It would have been a heartwarming moment, if our hearts weren't beating so fast._

_Finally, the evening ended, on a better note than it had any right to._

"You what ?"

Arlo shrugged.

"I said I had a wonderful time."

Shinobu looked back at her family, and then at Arlo.

"How? And—where?"

He smiled, and placed a hand gingerly—and briefly—against her cheek.

"Here and tonight, dummy—with you."

"But—what about my horrible tomato gravy?"

"Wasn't that your first ever attempt? I'd say it was pretty good for that."

"You were attacked!"

"So your family is concerned for you. I wish mine was."

"What about Kenichi?"

"That-was just weird. But my mother told me to expect weirdness and violence at the Hinata-Sou. She also set me up by not telling me 201 was now your room. I'm glad everyone let me offer up my prayer in there—under guard of course. Is there anything else I should know?"

Shinobu finally managed a smile.

"Never make me cry. It won't go well for you. And never 'fix' my food ever again."

"Shinobu-San?"

"Yes, Arlo-San?"

"I did offer up a silent prayer while in your room, in addition to the spoken one."

Shinobu blushed, and so did Arlo a bit.

"Until the day that prayer should become a reality, may I see you again? Perhaps next Tuesday?"

She nodded.

"Yes. After all, since September 4th was such a trial, surely the 11th will have to be a better day."

They stared into each other's eyes. Shinobu chuckled.

"Should one of us try to kiss the other, they'll go insane."

"Since in their case, I take that to be literal…"

He took and squeezed her hands in his.

"…that will have to do."

Arlo bowed before each member of Shinobu's family at the Sou, presenting Keitaro with a picture of his mother Alice and Haruka, taken almost fifteen years before. Shinobu would tease her Sempai sometime later, for Shinobu and 'Auntie' at that age bore a striking resemblance to one another. After he left and was out of sight and possible earshot, Shinobu pumped her arm into the air in triumph.

"It's over!"

She then turned and saw her assembled family, evil wicked grins pasted on their faces. Naru gestured.

"C'mere, Kid—c'mere. We—have to talk."

On another front, war seemed likely to erupt.

"Where were you? We're only one week past grand opening, and you take the night off?"

Arlo was half again this woman's size, yet he would always feel a foot tall in her presence.

"Mother—you gave me tonight off. To go and have dinner with Maehara-San at the Hinata-Sou."

"So? You couldn't have checked in, to see if we needed you to come back?"

"I get one night off a week-"

The kitchen knife flew past his face, grazing his cheek. Alice stopped and seemed horrified.

"Arlo, I didn't mean it-it's just been such a night. You do—deserve a night off. I-I—"

He held her.

"My face is my own, Mother. I am not him. Don't torture yourself so over a man who was never worth it."

"You—you are bleeding-"

"It's just a cut—just another cut. I know how to treat them by now."

When he had gone—or retreated—to the chain restaurant's office, Alice Guthrie found herself facing her own loyal staff. The Head Waitress, a woman Haruka had trained during her brief time with Alice, spoke for all of them.

"Ours is a land of traditions and loyalty. But we here would be so loyal to you in an anarchic realm with no morals. We just owe you that much. But we must see no more knives, or even slaps, Guthrie-Dono. Arlo is that good of a boy. He is like our own. Even for you, we offer this warning : Do Not Make Arlo Cry. Ever Again."

To be fair, Alice was not a Jekyll-And-Hyde. She was just a woman who had known some pain, which she kept in a very dark corner. That darkness had begun to bleed out. A call to Haruka gave her the name of a doctor. It was one she put aside for the present. She would have cause to regret this.

Her son, who did indeed know how to fix his facial cuts, was thinking not of his angry mother but of the smile of a young woman Naru Narusegawa considered her greatest rival for the heart of her fiancé.

**JOURNAL**

_If she thought that we would be anything but delighted by her apparent choice of boyfriend, Shinobu Maehara was being foolish._

_If she thought that we were just going to let this day and the nervous wrecks her nerves had made of all of us go, Shinobu Maehara was being insane._

Kei.

"A—disaster."

Naru.

"Making you—miserable."

Motoko.

"Psycho-Witches."

Mutsumi.

"Bouncy."

Mitsune.

"Just—don't."

Su.

"Extra ingredients-say, that was a threat to poison all of us, wasn't it?"

Shinobu closed her eyes, then opened them with a smile on her face.

"If I say that I love you all and that I will make it up to you for the way I've acted, will that be enough?"

Their faces melted to see this smile, and each turned to look at the other, the verdict being a no brainer.

"NO!"

"Hell No!"

"You think you can just spout off that much garbage..."

"I mean, he was a cute kid, but to go all 'Bad Seed' on us…"

"Do you really have the slightest idea how you acted?"

Mitsune stepped forward.

"Stop, stop! Folks, as Ryobo, I have found that our tension levels are rising. There are three main reasons for this. One is that two of us hump the night away uncaring of those of us who have to listen. Two is that one of us chose today to use up nearly all the goodwill she's built up and turn into The Return Of Datezilla. Three is-we're simply not getting enough exercise anymore. Face it, the intruder pervert is now our brother—and we've all seen so much intrusions alone don't matter as much. So I combined problems two and three."

Mitsu raised a finger in the air.

"Each night, time and weather permitting, we will have a Keitaro Hunt. The Keitaro will be chased like in olden days, happy golden days of gore. Faithful friends who are dear to us—will hunt the Keitaro down like the horn-dog he is."

Shinobu objected.

"Sempai Kei hasn't done anything to deserve this. You can't punish him just for our exercise!"

Mitsune pulled out a cap. It showed on its front the combined spelling of Keitaro's name written in katakana with a stylized English 'K'. Keitaro himself pulled out a set of his old glasses minus the lenses. Both of these were placed on Shinobu. Mutsumi hugged the girl's face into her chest.

"That's why each hunt will have a 'Designated Keitaro'. Now run along."

A skillet in hand, Kei nodded.

"Run fast."

"But I'm not immortal!"

"Then run even faster."

Shinobu quickly realized her peril, and got into the act as she ran off, the others in hot pursuit. Despite everything, she couldn't help but smile once she was out of sight.

_*If I can't have him, I'll be him.*_

"Waaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"

**JOURNAL**

_She played her part so well, we decided to let her keep on being Kei each night for the next week. She may not love her sempai as much after this._

_As the day finally ended, the worrywart Urashimas heard from Grandma, who is fine and is enjoying a city actually built below sea-level. Grandma spoke to me, and said what she was doing next Tuesday, but I honestly can't remember right now._

_END JOURNAL ENTRY, 9/4/2001_

_**THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS**_

The musicians finished their classic number for a delighted older lady. The outdoor café's owner approached her.

"Glad you liked it, Ma'am. That one song all but defines N'awlins in some respects."

Hinata nodded happily.

"*When The Saints Go Marching In* was always a favorite of my late husband Awa. It could even make him cry—oh my!"

She looked overhead.

"Those planes are flying awfully low."

The owner pshawed this notion.

"Nothin' but an illusion caused by living in our little fish bowl, Ma'am. Because the city is so far down in, planes landing at a normal height look all off. Not anything to worry about."

Yet it was that Hinata could not shake the chill she received from the thought that the planes she saw were flying way too low for her comfort. Even the fun and festivities of life in the Big Easy could not shake that off. At a very old French church, she lit candles for all her children, including Haruka's unborn child, and then one for the spirit of her beloved Awa.


	3. Chapter Two To Accessorize

Chapter Two – To Accessorize

_**August 14**__**th**__**, 1945**_

He was at last acknowledging reality or simply voicing a reality he had come to believe in but never dared speak. In any event, the Emperor Of Japan was prepared to solemnly speak before a nation that had never heard his broadcasted voice. He would say publicly, unequivocally and unconditionally that he was only just a man, leading a nation of mortal beings like himself, and that the nation in question had been defeated in a brutal war. The Chrysanthemum Throne was preparing for the once unthinkable but now perhaps inevitable surrender to Allied Forces. The war that had been called by at least two names was also about to be called done.

Emperor Hirohito would make this historic speech the next day, hopefully in time to avert both another ruinous atomic bombing and the movements of his military's own top officers, who had begun to see their revered Emperor as a flawed vessel in which to contain the divine. In short, men loyal to their ruler were trying to thwart the will of men loyal to the war.

A young man removed from this struggle yet whose heart lay with those who fought surrender was less than twelve hours away from willingly and happily trading his own life to thwart destiny's path. This was the driving goal and sole purpose of Awa Urashima. Beyond words read to him, and words he was to read prior to his mission, he had inscribed words of his own and sealed them in a compartment in his shoe.

*_To The Breath Of God Itself, Our Divine Wind : Blow only in my direction, or remain still. My goal is for my spirit to leap from that plane directly past the clouds, and then reach and walk through the gates of the Heavens. This is my dream. Do not get in the way of it.*_

His own prayers done with, Urashima, who had the respect of the officers who delivered discipline on a hair trigger, wandered freely and overheard the others making theirs.

"…when I came I believed. But did they have to keep beating me? I'm not sure this eye sees straight anymore. Please guide me home."

"…allow me to see some small piece of your plan. My mother is only a woman, as you have made them, and wept to see me leave. Let me see your plan and how I may stop the Yank advance, so that the gentle creature that bore me knows the answer to her pleading of 'Why?'"

"…can this really be a surprise attack? How can even the enemy be so stupid as to not expect us, after all these months? Should I ask you to make them amnesiac, or is this hubris? I must…"

"…they say to hit a smoke stack rather than a big gun, but smoke stacks don't bombard my brothers from afar. I was never good with intricate rules in school. Why now, when I have pledged my life to the Holy Chrysanthemum Seat, must there still be so very many intricate rules?"

At the last, Urashima encountered two he knew. Both were weaklings, but at least Fudo spoke no treason.

"…I have tried and tried to empty my poor stupid mind. But all I see is my hands shaking, the targets blurring, my will faltering. They say these Americans are fanatics who just roll up their sleeves and keep going, even past death. How am I to triumph over such yokai, without your grace and your firm hand upon my shoulder? How am I to do it—even if they are only men like myself? Breath Of God, empty me of doubt. Be Invoked."

Urashima expected treason and blasphemy both from Kusama.

"…came upon the ruins of my house and found all of them dead. I held the upper half of what had been my bratty little sister. I saw my father's head lying nearby. I saw my mother split apart from her head through her legs. Yet I felt nothing. I feel nothing now. I have to taunt fools like that hothead in order to get beaten so that I may feel something. Deliver me to Heaven or Hell. Deliver me straight to the President's House in America. But as I pass, Kami, please, let me again feel something real and know firmly that I was once alive!"

Urashima heard these and other prayers, many filled with doubts. The ice in his veins was not moved.

_*Don't let them get in my way, either.*_

At a hospital for the war's wounded, men who felt almost as little as Kusama lit up to see their angel, the one who didn't lecture them about their foolishness in being wounded, or laziness in not finding new reasons to return to the arenas of death.

_*Kami, she brings our meals, our sheets, and even cleans our filth. When she is near, the pounding of the shellfire in my head ceases briefly. I thank you for our girl.*_

_*I will be by your side in Heaven soon. I ask only that you find our girl a spot of Heaven right here on Earth. I have no legs anymore, but she makes me feel like I could dance.*_

_*Women do need to kick our sorry asses. But most do not understand that when a man is broken, he needs a gentler hand for that time. One here does, and that, God, is why we adore Hinata.*_

The men who were basically intact and still capable of bragging loudly were attended by the other nurses. Those shattered and considered useless were left to the care of one young girl, who the women considered cursed, but who the men considered a blessing.

She always made sure to be well away from these men when she cried herself to sleep at night. Better times would come, but for now all she had was the ability for her forced smile to make those men smile, some of them one last time.

"You did not take me when twice the sky fell. So if you do not wish to have me soon, can I have someone else to be with? I am not proud. I will take any old thing you see fit to leave me. Be Invoked."

_**SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 9**__**TH**__**, 2001**_

**FROM THE PRIVATE JOURNAL OF MOTOKO AOYOMA **

_I awoke as I have on many mornings for the past weeks, to the rhythmic sounds of two bodies slapping together, and the delighted groans that accompany this. This then is their morning quickie. After all, it has been nearly three hours since they last started in._

"_Good morning, Starshine—the Earth says Hello."_

_Mutsumi has contacted her brother in the construction industry, and he is to deliver some noise-canceling headphones, a blessing to all who dwell here. The sad part is, they really are keeping it down, or trying to. We who must dwell in the audible shadow of their passion have even considered asking that Naru's little sister Mei be sent to dwell with us, on the theory our 'happy humpers' would show restraint in her presence. That, or persuade Kanako to pose as Mei—I believe she could pull it off._

_A slight movement on the floorboards near my room tell me that a more easily obtained goal is at hand._

Motoko moved like lightning and caught the would-be Santa before she could escape.

"You don't have to do this, you know."

The eyes of Shinobu Maehara looked weary, but this was not from being kept up by Naru and Keitaro's coupling.

"It's just tea, buttered biscuits and some jam. I know you like that, before your workout with Sempai."

Motoko shook her head.

"And what for Su? Because yesterday morning, it was your own home-cooked chili-cheese fries, and some banana pudding. For Mitsu, a double egg and cheese sandwich every morning, so she can maintain her monsoon pace. Easily reheated fruit and nut oatmeal for our young lovers, and melon jello salad for Mutsumi."

Shinobu had been napping when Mutsumi found that, so she was spared the peals of laughter as the jello mounds shook and shimmied almost as much as the one they were intended for.

"Well, what would you have me do? Motoko, I was horrible to all of you."

Shinobu's iron-fisted efforts to keep her date with Arlo from being anything other than perfect had not achieved anything save earning the temporary ire of her friends. But as was usual with the sweet young girl, she now overcompensated for her bad time in a major way.

"Yes, you were. And we made our displeasure clear, and now that time is done. It was your turn in the barrel, Shinobu. A mark of residency at the Hinata-Sou."

"But what about Kei-Sempai? He was joining all of you to gut Arlo when you thought he wanted to jump me in my room."

Motoko laughed lightly.

"Our brother learned that over-protectiveness of our little sister is a natural reaction. I consider this, even more than his seeing my nude body, to be a mark of our acceptance of him."

Shinobu gained a sharp look, but did not become the shrew she had been a few days prior.

"We keep calling him that. None of us wants him to be our brother. As nice as Arlo is, my dreams still lie with the one I can't shut out of my heart."

Motoko sat her down on the futon. She looked that tired.

"Then do both yourself and Arlo-San a great favor. Make him a boy you are interested in knowing better, instead of the repository for your need to get past Kei. Shin-Chan, we each have deep weaknesses. Yours is the tendency to let your imagination get away with you. It happened on the beach, when Kei was to resuscitate you—and instead got his manhood clocked. It happened when you learned of my confession to him. As it was for my denial of my feelings and my fear of Tsuruko, so are you at your worst when you anticipate your blood pressure into four digits."

Shinobu shook her head.

"But I was such a little bitch. That's not like me. I don't want it to ever be like me."

Motoko tapped her on the forehead with two fingers.

"Baka—you don't get to escape growing up. Naru's glasses couldn't keep that one boy back. Kitsune couldn't be hung over while plotting some scheme forever. I cannot be practicing katas forever, and so forth. Will you end up less perpetually sweet than you once were? Of course! Even a true Yamato Nadeishko must keep steel in those long sleeves, so to run a household. Our Shinobu is growing up, and more excitingly, she is growing up with us. She is becoming more assertive-just as her sempai did. You see? He really is like your brother."

Shinobu yawned.

"I still wanna be one of those sisters in his ecchi collection."

"So do we all. But do not mistake your mistakes for who you are, and do not think we love our sister any less if all she makes us is a standard breakfast. Now, was I your last delivery?"

"Yeah. Now, I just have to…"

Motoko's fingers had moved quickly to the right nerve clusters, and put Shinobu out like a light. She placed her fully on the futon, and covered her.

"Sleep well, Shin. May our brother be yours alone, if only in your sweet dreams."

**JOURNAL**

_I will speak to Kei about perhaps letting the 'Keitaro Hunt' go this evening—though Shin actually seemed to be enjoying cosplaying her sempai the last few nights. It also occurs to me that while I may be able to shut Shin-Chan down, of late, there is nothing that can do so for the girl who was Kitsune. _

_Mitsu, what have you done with our trickster?_

Mitsu was making the honey and jelly sandwiches that would be her lunch, and likely her dinner as well. Motoko for her part re-steeped her tea leaves from earlier before meeting Keitaro on the rooftops.

"What are you asking me?"

Mitsu was forever making notes these days. Motoko came to the conclusion that the Sou would now have to eclipse the Imperial residence itself in order to fit all the things Konno-San had planned for it.

"Is it safe to grow on the land that was once the Forbidden Annex? Way I fig, even if we build on it, no one is gonna wanna stay there, but maybe it's safe to grow vegetables and herbs on. Unless, ya know, we're gonna end up with one of those Mushi-Shi things where the broccoli rots out your insides and the carrots replace your eyes."

The samurai allowed her tea to cool a bit before placing it in her thermos.

"Mutsumi might be better able to answer that. I will ask Tsuruko to consult with Aoyoma clan elders. But I have to believe that since it is destroyed and we all live and thrive—it's probably safe to grow there. There might even be herbs known for their spiritual cleansing qualities. They might be an idea to plant first."

Mitsu circled one of her scribbled paragraphs with a satisfied smile.

"Great! First year or so, it'll just supplement what we use in the kitchen. Next couple, maybe it can replace all but the most specialized goods. After that, who knows? Fresh veggies and herb tea at the Tea Room?"

Motoko strained to remember that, only a few months before, Mitsune Konno only recognized one Six O'Clock per day, and the AM was not that one.

"A dream to be sure, Ki—Mitsu. May I ask a question?"

"Sure."

Motoko knew this would not go over well, but the question was now irresistible.

"Who are you? You barely drink, you hardly sleep, and you are focused like my blade on Kei's peeping neck that first night."

Mitsu got up in a huff.

"Another one."

Motoko stopped her.

"Please. I meant no harm."

"No harm? What, you want me to be the pain in the ass that you were ready to gut like Kei Nii-San, again on that first night—only with me it was less than a month ago?"

Motoko sat her back down.

"Everyone including me is impressed with the change in you. Kei certainly is. We've just become concerned for you. Your pace is frantic."

The new Ryobo's eyes lit up.

"Bro said that? About me?"

Motoko smiled a reassuring smile.

"I asked him to chain you down. He responded that, even if he could catch you, what chain could hold our Ryobo-Dynamo?"

Motoko swore she saw Mitsu choke back tears. She raised a finger in the air in declaration.

"Then there's no way I can let up! My Bro has begun to take me seriously. His Onee-Chan will not fail him again."

"Errr—how exactly have you failed him in the past-and isn't he older than-"

Mitsu cut her off with a glare.

"Naru won. Mutsumi never played for real. Su is too unreal, God love her. That leaves you and Shinobu. She was too nervous, just like the other night. You shifted gears too late. But at least all of you had the option of playing. I never did, because I was Kitsune, loose trou and damned near everything else, and he never took me seriously. This is my chance to change that, and I am not letting up. Ryobo is a bottle I will never empty, but I intend to try and try till Kei sees in me what he sees in all of you."

"What then, Mitsu? He has made his choice, and I could not bring myself to challenge it again."

She waved her hand dismissively.

"Who said anything about that crap? I mean, aside from the allowable possibility Naru will blow it, maybe I just want to be good enough that, even if he never left her, it could be me. You said it right? He's our journey."

Motoko would that morning best Keitaro as usual. This fight, though, was not to be hers.

"You are a fool. He loves you already as deeply as he is able. When he struck you by accident, he was nearly crushed by pain. He…"

When Mitsu glared again, Motoko swore she heard the sound of thunder in the distance. Konno-San's hidden heritage was asserting itself, and it would do so more and more in the coming months.

"You have sparring matches, and Naru bumps uglies with him like 24/7. Mutsumi is still like his playmate-small P-mostly. Su thinks you and him are these founts of wisdom. Him and Shinobu can't seem to decide if they're friendly exes or father and daughter. All I have is the respect he grants me for improving the home with our grandmother's beloved name. His simple love is not enough. I may never own his whole heart, but I will hold a niche within it that is mine and mine alone. Now, tomorrow-we'll have to discuss you giving up that rooftop area for the summer. The guests will eat up the view."

Pursuing Mutsumi's take on the new garden's spiritual safety, Mitsu then left a very concerned Motoko alone.

**JOURNAL**

_If I ever told my past self that the calmest part of my day would be spent deliberately baiting Keitaro to defeat me and steal my robes-no, I could never have told the fragile thing that._

_He has begun to move into his own. Before, I merely wondered what he would be like if his nerves stopped ruling him. Now, short of shutting his emotions off entirely, only practice could make him any better. I feel challenged by his growth—and it is a good challenge._

_Mitsu says I shifted from purest hate to love too late to 'win'. But it is not that I must soon discuss with Kei. It is the over-drive effort that almost claimed Shinobu, and that seems to have claimed Mitsu outright. I fear it may be pushing us all past our limits, even to him and Naru. Is even Todai worth it if we are all too tired to so much as raise a glass each time one of us gets in?_

_Again, though I am rarely struck by his practice staff, I am often struck by how my feelings have shifted, not merely from hate to love, but from love to not knowing exactly what I would do without him. His influence with our two youngest residents alone makes him invaluable. _

_His worth to me, as I so recently sat naked and shattered by Su's anger, goes somewhat beyond that._

"You continue to evade well, but your strikes back lack force and follow-through!"

"Gimme time, Motoko—it wasn't so long ago I wasn't evading even your most obvious feints."

Keitaro allowed a weaker strike at his ankles in order to stop the bokken's upward motion, then brought his staff uncomfortably close to Motoko's chin. When this back-and-forth settled into a pattern, the two began to chat.

"It is a brilliant invention."

"Her most brilliant. Hands down."

Motoko did not allow her fretting to get in the way of her attacks, and on more occasions than she cared to admit, her defense.

"Must we ask her to destroy it?"

Keitaro was nowhere near as adept at keeping his chat separate, but it did not wholly disable him either.

"You already know the answer to that. Suppose it had been Russian ships that forced Japan into international trade, back last century or so?"

"What—would have been the difference?"

Keitaro's answer was snarky but not contemptuous.

"I dunno. Maybe nothing at all. Do you want to find out? Would saving Yamamoto-Dono have shortened or lengthened the Pacific War? Would he have urged the Emperor to surrender after the first bomb fell on Hiroshima? Or go across the sea—the Americans take Canada in the War Of 1812, or the British take them back. Stop the Crusades? Make sure the Mongols never rise? Even something silly like stopping Superman's creators from making him."

"That one—fails me entirely."

Keitaro kept her staff back from him with his own as he kept on.

"In 1942, Fleischer Studios of Popeye fame made a series of well-regarded shorts based on Superman. Their style and beauty were said to directly inspire many of the great mangaka, even perhaps the manga art form itself. Now, art forms or breakthroughs can exist without this or that inspiration, but that's an equation I do not like to contemplate."

Motoko saw her opening to end the battle, and began to build towards it.

"It is difficult to imagine our existence without manga. Though the anime adaptations often leave something to be desired."

**JOURNAL**

_Enough physical contact occurred between us that the Motoko of times past would have been obliged to avenge herself upon Kei. Now, I am at least honest enough to admit that what contact there was left me wanting more. Poor Shinobu—I understand her fervor to move past him even better than I let on. I just don't know that it's possible this soon—besides which, I don't have an Arlo._

_Naru is kind enough to take part of one of her only free and clear days off and help me as I prepare for the entrance exam to Todai. Kei made his lie real, Naru made her failure right, and Mutsumi eventually remembered to put her name down on the exam. Tsuruko made it clear that my next such lie will see my beheading preceded by becoming a 'bride of the sword'._

_So I'm studying, I'm studying._

"The rules of math don't change, Motoko. The most complex possible equation—that someone besides a computer can handle- must still obey rules the same as two plus two does."

Motoko checked over her work.

"Try telling that to my answers."

Naru corrected both those answers and Motoko's work with an ease that told the samurai part of the reason Kei had been intimidated by Narusegawa.

"You're as bad as Shinobu—I mean building all this up in your head till it scares your robes off."

"She takes after her sempais. Huh—perhaps I should ask Su for help with the Sciences."

"Not-a great idea."

Motoko looked badly confused.

"That makes no sense. She is a brilliant inventor. She just created a device that most physicists say cannot ever exist."

"Yeah, but most of her inventions are instinctive. She can build a machine that costumes all of us faster than she could ever explain how she did it—let alone in terms someone who was not her peer could ever hope to understand. Even Mutsumi can barely hope to read the condensed version of what Su would have to say. Add to that, she uses a model of physics that, even if we understood it, trying to use it in a standard or advanced Physics class like that in Todai or other top places would get you tossed out by professors who do _*not*_ like to be challenged."

Motoko laughed lightly.

"Yet this is the same girl who will not make the connection between her newly beloved Chili-Cheese Fries and subsequent trips to the bathroom."

Naru laughed a bit as well.

"Nobody's perfect. Oh—and Kei and I agreed to let Shinobu off the hook like you said. Poor kid. Her nerves aside, that really was a hell of an evening."

They both stood up together, fingers raised in the air, and spoke as one.

"For I am Kenichi, of Class 7-5!"

Laughing a bit louder, they sat back down. Motoko broached a tender subject.

"Shinobu is trying her best to move past Kei—for that at least she has my admiration. Naru? What would you do if-if it were you who had to move past him?"

"I don't know that I-I can't really answer-please don't ask me to-I—I—I…"

Motoko also let her off the proverbial hook.

"Next question, Sensei-Chan?"

Naru resumed breathing.

"Thanks-and thanks. Errr—are you worried about Mitsu?"

"Yes. But it seems that, short of immediately destructive behavior, we have little standing to speak in her eyes. Indeed, how can we assail her for her newfound focus and seriousness?"

Naru closed one book and opened one that dealt with geography and older place-names and border markings. She had never told anyone, even Keitaro, that geography had played a part in her failed first entrance exam.

"She's asked me not to tutor her. She said she has no intention of pursuing Todai till her _*work here is done*_. I mean, have you seen that note-pile of hers? She's inventing new work as she goes. Maybe—she's pranking us back for being so hard on her last month?"

Motoko felt her eyes begin to blur at seeing all the Russian border changes over the last century, and turned to the section on Southeast Asia instead.

"To what end? If it was debt relief she wanted, we offered her that. Besides, you didn't see the resolve in her eyes. She thinks that our brother does not respect her."

"So tell her he does. Even before we started in, he told me about a few times she stood out in a positive way. She can't use Kei as an excuse to bury herself in her work."

The common thought that they were complaining about a woman who had done exactly what they all demanded of her finally stopped the discussion as the pair turned to fundamentals of biology.

"Endothermic-exothermic-aagggh! Naru, is this trip really necessary?"

"You wanna storm the Red Gate or not?"

Motoko mused in silence that it wasn't just Mitsu yearning for Keitaro's approval. One who already had that beyond dispute (save for one recent night she had made amends for) emerged from the kitchen in his company. Shinobu smiled.

"Sempai and I combined our study session with making these lovely poached eggs."

Naru shook her head, then kissed the girl on the cheek.

"You-have got to stop killing yourself over one bad turn."

Shinobu looked slightly annoyed, but kept this out of her voice.

"It's not killing myself to make nice things for the people I love. Like I said, we combined two tasks in one."

Keitaro put his arm around the girl and squeezed.

"She got every last question I posed right. Even some of the ones I missed on my final try. It may be a few years off, but I say Maehara-Chan here is gonna ace that exam."

The squeeze and the words obviously made Shinobu blush. Moving on, it seemed, was one of those things that seemed fine in concept.

"I-I have to finish Su's eggs. I made them special, by recombining the chili-cheese fries I made her."

Motoko cut a piece of egg and toast, relishing the yolk's runoff.

"I thought that she devoured those fries."

Shinobu shook her head.

"I cut them too thick for her. Same with the chili."

Motoko looked over at Su's room.

"That is ingratitude. It will be addressed."

"Motoko, you mustn't! You know how Su is-like as not she imprinted on chili-cheese fries like Alice-San makes them. She's the same with her preferred brand of instant ramen. She wasn't impolite about it. Please? She's been so good—I mean so much better-lately."

Motoko relented in this, but smiled at a wicked thought.

"Very well, Shin-Chan. You do look well-rested, by the way. But the price for sparing Su my words is that you must give all four of us those fries and eggs—the princess will do just fine with a simple poached egg."

**JOURNAL**

_Auntie Haruka called it for the 'McDonald's Syndrome'. Sarah will reject well-made hand-formed burgers from restaurants in favor of the golden arches'-I can only call it product. Similarly, Su rejected Shinobu's steak-fries, multi-bean chili and aged cheese in favor of what, apologies to Arlo-San's mother, cannot be anywhere near as good, being the product of a chain's recipe rather than the love of a young girl eager to please her friends._

_Still, while Kaolla Su's taste in food may not synch up, her manners are at last showing direct signs of her innate sweetness. She would never have insulted Shinobu, but there was a time her bluntness might have induced a crying jag in our resident chef._

_But it is neither food nor protocol that concerns me as I begin today's lesson meant to build a just and proper ruler._

"Today we start with three legendary stalwarts known for their codes of honor. Japan's own Samurai, guided as always by Bushido. The medieval knights of Europe, holding to the code of Chivalry, as laid down by such men as King Arthur. Lastly, the heroic gunslinger of the American West, bringing law and justice to a land untamed and wild. Despite seemingly vast differences, all three of these great and legendary heroes are bound together by codes of conduct. And all these codes possess an identical core."

Su nodded excitedly.

"Honor? Fair play? Heroic sacrifice?"

Motoko shook her head.

"No-the thing that binds all their codes together is that they and the legends surrounding them are complete and utter frauds!"

Motoko felt some unease about the complete truthfulness of her statement, but saw in Kaolla Su's pretty stunned face that it had the desired impact.

"But you follow Bushido!"

Motoko kept to her lesson plan.

"In Japan, the advent of the Shogunate ended long and bloody struggles for power, leaving many Samurai with permanently sheathed swords. In Europe, the strengthening of central monarchs and the failure of the Crusades found many Knights armored against nothing at all. In America, after its Civil War, soldiers on the winning side and soldiers on the losing side sought a West that was open enough for them to run from their war-life—though the natives of those lands doubtless did not welcome this. In all three ages and places, it was found that killers trained, honed and itchy to fight had nothing to do. For all they knew was death and taking what they wanted, from whom they wanted, when they wanted to."

"Couldn't they just arrest them when they did wrong?"

Motoko had been prepared for this.

"How do you arrest heroes? How do you arrest ones so well versed in war? And what if there were another war? It is said that, you, who are on the road, must have a code that you can live by, so to teach the children well."

"Ummm—did Musashi or Shingen say that?"

Motoko blushed a bit, and for a moment evoked the tongue-tied imagery of the man she described as her journey and path.

"No…that was Crosby, Stills, and Nash. After passing the Southern Cross, Grandma sent me one of their CD's. But it has validity, in our quest to investigate and live by a code of honor."

Su shook her head.

"Even if it's a fraud?"

"If a child watching an idealized Western learned not to shoot someone in the back, and the reasons why you should not do so, is this a fraud? If a person struggling with a moral choice takes heart from the example of a Knight of the Round Table, does it matter that Arthur himself was mainly a glorified immigration officer, meant to keep the Saxons out of Britain—a task he failed in? If the final sacrifice is called for, does it matter one whit that Musashi and others wrote of an ideal to be strived for, rather than something that truly exists or once did? For one seeking honor, these lies and frauds are guideposts to lending them truth. It is a hard path to stick to. No corner of the world, especially not the three I mentioned, are free of innocent blood shed by those who by rights should have known better. The struggle is always against that ultimate temptation. Might Makes Right. Because I Can. It's About Power. We take these idealized and sometimes false histories to heart and replace those horrid words with ones like Might For Right, Because I Must, and Let Me Help."

Su seemed to realize something.

"You want me to get rid of my time machine too, don't you? Just like Onii-Chan."

Motoko had actually meant to inspire some thoughts about reforming Molmol's hair-trigger staff of royal guards, whose obnoxious behavior had rubbed even one who loved Su well very badly. But the time-machine was the more pressing concern, so she pursued it instead.

"You must ponder, Princess—what is your device in the hands of those you love and trust—and what might it become in the hands of those you could never extend either to?"

"Motoko, can I ask some questions?"

"Of course."

Su scratched her head for a moment.

"Okay—so what you're saying is, Codes Of Honor are a lot like the Observer Effect, wherein the belief that these heroes of times past watch over you causes you to show self-restraint."

Motoko felt her eyes go wide.

"I…suppose."

Su scribbled some notes.

"Then, on a quantum level, we are trying to disallow for certain negative potential outcomes, in effect having the primary die almost always roll a two, a four or a five, allowing greater flexibility in the allowable outcomes of the roll of the second die, even if simultaneous?"

Motoko recalled an instance two years back when she had seen Keitaro departing Mitsune's room, having heard him futilely try and wake her to collect the rent, only to be set upon sexually, with his body's response to said arousal being evident as he awkwardly left. Motoko had known 'Urashima' was not at fault, but she hit him anyway—perhaps harder than she ever had before or since, and pondered that one day, her karma would have her pay for being knowingly unjust. This felt much like that day.

"Uhhhhhh-one could make such an argument-or supposition-if one wanted to."

Motoko tried to gird herself for the final assault that proved Naru's earlier point about even walking in the same scientific room as Su.

"Okay. But weren't there real mystic samurai, knights and gunslingers? Seta-Sama wrote a book about them, and proved that Arthur was a real king whose kingdom was closer to the stories than not. Sarah gave it to me for last Christmas. He said he even once met a gunslinger who keeps the worlds in balance, just like the artifact he brought back to Molmol does."

**JOURNAL**

_My aim was never to stain Bushido or Chivalry, and where there were moral gunfighters, I would allow for them. My aim had been to show that even where the legend eclipses the fact, the striving is still important._

_My aim needs work. We after all dwell in a world of legends made real. I was never so pleased as when Urashima took over for me when I ended the lesson. Kami love her, I almost always learn more teaching Su than she ever takes in from me. For example, I had not known that the artifact that had us all living in such interesting times went by the name The World Rose Of Toudai, and that it 'kept the real from colliding into the unreal'. When Su began to extrapolate from this legend about overlapping quantum universes, this noble warrior found cause to retreat with her tail between her legs._

_Apparently, having determined in her way that planting on the site of the former Forbidden Annex posed no threat, Mutsumi had begun to use the cool day to plant some herbs. I decided to aid her as we awaited her brother with the noise-cancelling headphones. While these smells competed with Shinobu's efforts to make deep-fried beer-battered onion rings and fish hash balls, my day took a most interesting turn._

Mutsumi heartily embraced a well-muscled man wearing sunglasses.

"Tohru!"

"Hey, Sis! Still dressing for success I see."

"Oh, stop it you. Do you have them?"

He held up a heavy-looking bag with little effort.

"I wouldn't wear these things in the warmer months. Are the newlyweds that loud?"

Motoko took this moment to speak up.

"They are newly together, though not yet wed, they are exactly that loud."

Tohru Otohime seemed to take in Motoko, until interrupted by the arrival of Keitaro.

"You built a good foundation with her, Aoyoma-Chan, but she still won't budge on the subject of her latest invention….uhhhh!"

Tohru seized and held Keitaro against the outside wall.

"This the lowlife that broke your heart, Sis?"

Mutsumi was the only resident of the Sou never to have struck Keitaro. As she slammed her brother away from him, it was at last confirmed that this was a choice on her part, not an inability.

"This is the man who is my heart, and one of my dearest friends for something like twenty years now. The only reason I don't make a serious effort to have him for my own is that it would hurt my other oldest friend. He is also a brother to me—and he is older than you by three months. Got me?"

A now-sheepish Tohru smiled at Kei.

"Hey, there—Onii-Chan. Howzabout helping your little bro into that onsen? Sis here hits hard."

Never one to resist an opening, Mutsumi pulled Kei into her chest with full force.

"Oh, Kei-Kun knows that!"

If he was able to shrug off all-out beatings, Kei was certainly able to do so with being shoved against a wall. So he guided the dazed Tohru to the onsen, tapping the bamboo pole six times to rouse whoever might be in it already. No one was. A few minutes later, Kei came back in, looking a bit dazed. Motoko saw this, and so left Mutsumi to spot out a new area for more plants.

"Urashima?"

He looked at her a bit vacantly.

"That guy is definitely Mutsumi's brother."

"A bit of an airhead?"

"Kind-of."

"A genius?"

"Can't say."

Motoko shook her head.

"I don't follow you then."

Naru and Mitsune came down the stairs, Naru looking annoyed about the endless stream of suggestions that seemed to be Mitsu's beer substitute these days.

"Don't follow him where?"

"Kei just told me that Mutsumi's brother, out in the onsen right now, is definitely her brother, but said he meant neither in personality nor intelligence. What else is there?"

Naru and Mitsu locked stares on each other, then raced for the onsen door, peering gingerly around the corner. Both women had eyes the size of saucers. Mitsu for her part headed into Kei's old room, and then left with three of his 'special' magazines before heading upstairs to her room. Naru grabbed Kei and whispered to him.

"Now?"

She nodded.

"I'll even cos-play for you. But it has to be now."

The pair ran upstairs. Motoko still felt lost. Shinobu walked past her in a white towel.

"I have supper set aside for easy reheating. Just warn that I'm in here, please?"

"Shinobu…"

Ten seconds later, Shinobu turned around. Her nose was bloody, and her face held a blank look and she muttered one word as she too headed upstairs.

"Kaiju…"

Finally, Motoko looked, and her confusion cleared up. Her vision was another half an hour in doing so.

**JOURNAL**

_I like to think I'm not shallow. I mean, after all, the man I love best of all, mine or not, is hardly an obvious example of manliness._

_Then I saw Tohru. All of him. Urashima was right. Apparently, as for the female Otohimes, so for the males in their way. Mutsumi said that, after her brother left, she had to put on the headphones to drown out sounds from all over the Sou. I am embarrassed, but I could I also care less. I have seen something I like, and I will pursue it._

_I'm so shallow._

_Shinobu for her part ran off to visit Arlo in Su's company, apparently an innocent version of Naru's coping mechanism. Mitsu, her needs taken care of, went right back to her frenzy. Me, I talked to my in-road with this titan._

Mutsumi seemed far more interested in her plants than in talk of her brother.

"I dunno. He seemed to like the place. He remembers coming here once or twice, when we were kids."

"Yes, but-did he mention anything else?"

"Like-what?"

Motoko swallowed her pride, in a bid to perhaps swallow something almost as large.

"Like me?"

Mutsumi frowned.

"Well, yes-but I put him in his place again. He can't say that sort of thing about my friend."

Motoko's heart jumped.

"He said something perverted about me?"

"Ummm-Tohru? Never. He said something about your clothes."

"How—he would like to tear them off of me?"

Mutsumi breathed in.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?"

"After our brother's years of loving perversions? Of course."

Mutsumi raised an eyebrow.

"Okay-he said your clothes looked like Abercrombie & Fitch failed to hold back a wrongly proposed catalog of Faux Kendo Fashion. But really, what does that jerk know about clothes?"

**JOURNAL**

_My words to Su aside, I believe firmly in the tenets of Bushido. Whatever its origins, and whatever sad use the Fascists put it to during the Pacific War, I hold firm to its goals and ideals, for life and for war, and especially for that last measure of a warrior's stand._

_But while I plan to always live by Bushido, it is perhaps time I found other clothes to live in._

_How does one go about this?_

An excited two hours had passed, and Mutsumi's brother had left. Naru was still blushing, and an understanding Keitaro slept on the couch, while a shaken Shinobu and Mitsune each held one of his hands. Su frowned at a missed opportunity, and vowed to get even 'in some forgivable way'.

"Ummm—you want to do what?"

Motoko poured some tea while she and Naru sat in the kitchen.

"I need a new wardrobe. Just-something more casual. Something all my own."

"Motoko-he was just a jerk who won a genetic lottery. To hear Mutsumi tell it, her bro not only has one, he is one. Maybe bigger figuratively than he is literally-though that boggles the mind."

"His lack of manners and couth is not at issue, Narusegawa."

She looked down at the table.

"What I cannot shake is the fact that the first man I have fancied for any reason since I realized Kei would never be mine took one look at me and thought 'fashion nightmare'. It's not just him. At kendo tournaments and exhibitions, other girls arrive and leave in regular garb. I am the only one who arrives and leaves in the same garb she fights in as well. Even Tsuruko has an alternate wardrobe. I think that I might have been trying to out-do her by keeping to warrior garb exclusively. I have also accepted that this is unlikely. Whether as a warrior or a woman-I am a nerd. And unlike you, mine is not a disguise."

Naru took her hand.

"Hey—you and Shin-chan, huh? The Art of Being Needlessly Hard on yourself?"

Motoko grinned slightly.

"I had a dream that Kei and I had married—until Tsuruko quickly claimed him for her own—and by that I mean as both sibling and mate."

"Ouch!"

"Indeed. My subconscious seems to be telling me that I must forge ahead of both my old fears in some fashion, even if I am at peace with them."

Naru smiled.

"Kei will go with you when you shop. Hey! It's only Two right now. You can make a round of some of the shops in the city well before they close."

"You want Kei to come with me?"

Naru winked.

"Of course, silly! You need a guy to shop with you, so you can reject his every last fashion suggestion and get angry when he doesn't answer right. Besides—it's a guy's opinion drove you to this, right?"

**JOURNAL**

_Her logic, had she been using any, would have been irrefutable. Unspoken was my desire to be seen as attractive in Urashima's eyes—though this must have crossed Narusegawa's mind. Kindness or cruelty? With her, I am never quite sure. She is largely a gracious winner, but there are times she does seize the trophy and hold it over our heads—the varying imagery of which makes me smile and blush to contemplate._

_As Urashima and I leave, I am almost heartened to see Mitsu still stunned, and for once these days, slothful and inactive. The power of nostalgia._

Keitaro sighed.

"I can only paraphrase what I always tell Naru."

Motoko was wearing one dress, and holding two office-style suits of different colors.

"And that is?"

He forced a smile, drawing on promises his fiancée had made about the coming night's activities.

"You have a butt that cannot, under any circumstances, be made to look anything less than perfection itself—and certainly never fat."

"Urashima—this is no more pleasant for me than it is for you."

"Aoyama-San—be not so sure."

"Haven't you gone clothes-shopping with Shinobu?"

He nodded.

"I go shopping for my clothes—she goes shopping for hers. Shinobu knows that as a man, I have no valuable input to give on this front."

Her eyes turned to pleading.

"Keitaro—I need a guy's opinion."

He rolled his eyes at a woman who once threatened regularly to roll his head.

"The sporty outfit with the beige shorts and cream-colored top. That I could see you looking really good in, when you're not dressed in Kendo garb."

She smiled, grabbed the one he spoke of from the small pile she had gathered, then frowned.

"No! No—this won't do at all. How could you recommend such a thing?"

His head fell forward.

"If I say pink, you say blue. If I say blouse, you say halter. If I say pants, you say skirt. I'd offer to marry you to end this, but it wouldn't, would it?"

She went back to his selection.

"You think I'd look good in this?"

"Yes-but-"

He shrugged.

"That's me. No two guys are gonna dovetail on precisely what makes a woman look good, Motoko."

Motoko put five outfits back, and grabbed three more.

"Narusegawa was wrong. Bringing you here has only made both of us miserable. Urashima, you look like my used body wraps. Go and take a walk."

"Thanks, Motoko. Being here, answering these kinds of questions for anyone but Naru can only get me in-"

During renovation, a large curtain separated the main store from the ladies' changing area. Keitaro chose then to walk straight into it, taking it down entirely. Ladies in varying states of dress and undress made their displeasure known.

"Pervert!"

"Monster!"

"KILL HIM!"

Motoko looked at him.

"You alright?"

Keitaro nodded.

"Yeah, I can handle this. Oh—and the peach one you just picked up is really nice…. WAAAAHHHH!"

She watched him run off at top speed, his enraged 'victims' of all age groups in hot pursuit.

"He's still got it."

Finding three outfits that suited her, Motoko purchased two of each before attempting to depart the store, her large shopping bags held over her back.

"Is he here?"

Motoko shook her head at the gathered women.

"No. I can assure you it was an accident. He is a fool sometimes, but not a monster."

One lady stepped forward with a tape around her waist.

"I wanted to thank him. Chasing him, I went down two sizes!"

Another held up small pieces of paper.

"My indecent exposure netted me the phone numbers of seven men—three of whom are ones I might actually want to see again."

A third raised a finger in the air.

"Most men don't know enough to run when they are in trouble. They stand there and stutter. Tell me-is he spoken for?"

Motoko felt the weight shift in one of her 'bags', which she then knocked against a wall.

"Several times over. After all, we housebroke him."

**JOURNAL**

_I refuse to be surprised by his ability to do such things anymore. I now consider it a sign of normal life. Urashima has served his time. Now the others must critique my new attire—and tell me if they think other men would like it._

_Abercrombie my samurai ass._

"You should note—she picked _not one thing _I liked."

Naru lightly slapped the back of his head.

"That's what you were there for, dummy. Just as the oyster needs that grain of sand to make a pearl, so a girl needs a guy to shop with to focus the choices she's already capable of making."

Su looked puzzled.

"You said it was his punishment for falling asleep after finishing up last night."

While Naru's face turned red, Mitsu held up a notebook. Sadly notable, it was of a different color than the one she had been using—indicating ever more plans for remodeling the Hinata-Sou.

"Speaking of choices, Bro—you and I have some to make. At least some of the contract work I have in mind involves stuff that needs to be done well before winter hits, so we can use the cold season to check on how well they take."

Shinobu seemed excited.

"I don't think I've ever seen Motoko in anything outside of her warrior's outfit—except for the maid outfit when Sempai pulled down her-shutting up."

Mutsumi folded her arms and looked a bit confused.

"Maybe she just doesn't get my brother's taste?"

Naru snickered.

"I think she wants to appeal to that taste…and maybe get a taste to boot. Not that I blame her."

Shinobu gasped to hear this said outright, and Keitaro gave his woman a light glare. Mutsumi seemed to realize something.

"Maybe I should mention something about my brother? I thought you all knew…"

Motoko emerged from Su's room wearing a simple white pants combo, with slightly longer sleeves anticipating the chill weather to come. She stood and almost wished she were truly naked, with only her toned body up for judgment, rather than her taste in clothes on that body.

"Well?"

Small claps from her sisters and a nod from her brother told her this one passed muster. Motoko determined to change this pristine suit before she soiled it. Shinobu turned to Mutsumi.

"I'll bet that gets your brother's attention."

"In as much as anything of that sort can. I really thought it was obvious…"

Cut off once more by Motoko's entrance, this outfit was a navy blue casual with a matching vest and extended skirt, perhaps bespeaking the incident Shinobu had raised only minutes ago.

"If and when I get into Todai, I thought that I might have to impress while seeking an on-campus job. I have no idea if this accomplishes that."

Mutsumi tried to seize the moment.

"I think it's impressive. We all do. But Motoko, to use someone like Tohru as your benchmark is kind of pointless."

"I could tell that."

"You could?"

Mutsumi's hopes were quickly dashed.

"Yes. Your brother lacks manners. But I want an outfit to make him eat his words. To make him regret not even seeing me as an option."

As Motoko left to put on the final suit, Mutsumi openly sighed.

"That's highly unlikely."

Mutsumi was about to try yet again as Motoko emerged, only to be cut off by Keitaro.

"The peach one?"

Motoko smiled.

"It came highly recommended."

Naru shook her head.

"You can't actually choose something a man picks out for you! You've just made my future marriage more difficult!"

Motoko winked at her in a familiar way.

"Yes—yes I have. Now, Mutsumi—when might we see your brother again?"

"Well, we won't see Tohru, but we might see-Motoko, you should know that he only dates from inside the company he works for."

"I do not wish to date him. I will leave that trial to the women in his construction company's front office."

Mutsumi, whatever lacks she may have possessed in catching on to certain things, was in the odd position of being the only one in that room who was not completely clueless.

"There are no women in the company Tohru does work for."

**JOURNAL**

_When interested in someone, it is perhaps wise to ask in advance if this person would be at all interested in return. This does not disturb me, for to hear it told, most men Tohru knows have the same opinion of him most of us quickly developed—some even declaring him intolerable for even a one-nighter, other benefits aside._

_I am disturbed by my inability to even see this as a possibility, as the others posited 'clues' they 'should have' picked up on prior to Mutsumi's revelation. I cannot speak to the validity of these 'clues' or the stereotypes they may speak to—because it doesn't matter which angle I approach sex and romance from. The fact is, and the frustrating fact remains, I know nothing of either. Urashima is not to be mine, and the possibilities of Kaolla Su are no possibilities for the potential years I will be her teacher. They are all I know in that light, and my first footstep out the door into the unknown involved getting worked up over a man with a loose mouth and no interest in me whatsoever._

_Then again, the man I now hold dear got his start here in a less than stellar way. Perhaps it is merely the way of first steps. Maybe one must play the fool to gain even initial footing._

_Very well, Urashima. I will become a fool._

Shinobu handed over her 'badges of office.'

"You sure you want to do this?"

Motoko held the 'Kei' hat and glasses.

"I welcome it. Besides, the exhaustion of the chase may help me sleep better when our pair starts in, headphones or no."

"Then you are tonight's 'Designated Keitaro'. Wear Sempai's name with pride, Motoko-Chan."

Mutsumi walked in.

"Ummm—one set of noise-canceling headphones needed to be replaced. So guess who came by?"

To appearances, the identity of the delivery-person was obvious.

"Tohru?"

"Nah—not my bro. Like he says, he wouldn't be caught dead in anything I wear. His interests aside, I still can't see him denouncing a girl as hot as you, Aoyoma-San."

"This is Koichi, Tohru's twin brother."

Shinobu shook her head.

"Umm, isn't it stretching credulity for him to have a twin like that?"

Motoko glared at the younger girl.

"Perhaps you should ask King Lambda Lu or Nyamo that question."

"Right—got it."

"Shinobu?"

"Hey, I said I got it!"

"No-aren't you having another dinner with Arlo-San in two days?"

Shinobu smiled.

"We sure are. I would ask Otohime-San to join us if he would."

Looking a little shy—and driving Motoko wild in the process—Koichi Otohime shrugged.

"Glad to. But-it's Koi-Chan. Sis had said you were all like sibs here. But I guess I should be straight up-unlike Jerky Tohru and my wonderful Sis—I didn't exactly partake of the family fortune, genetics-wise—if you know what I mean."

Motoko took the next step, for good or ill.

"I cannot think of anything that could matter less to me, as we enjoy good food and the company of those dear to us."

"Great! Listen—Shinobu-Chan—are those onion rings I smell?"

The girl smiled.

"And popcorn fish. The—fish hash balls didn't work out so well. Arlo-San gave me a recipe for horseradish sauce, too. Mutsumi—can your brother stay?"

"Better make him a plate to go, Shin-Chan. He works on-call maintenance for some major buildings in Tokyo, and has to get back."

After Koichi and Shinobu left, Motoko asked a question.

"Why was he so forthcoming about his-shortcoming?"

Mutsumi sighed.

"Poor Koichi has never been able to deal with a simple fact-he does not have the Otohime family endowment. He's tried literally everything to make up the difference. It plays out differently for men and women, of course."

"I-errrr—would imagine."

"Yup. Women in the family excel at the Sciences, and the men at Economics. But Koichi's grades are horrible—no matter how hard he tries. Please don't tease him about it."

Motoko nodded.

"I will concentrate on some other thing, then. So-do you think he'll use the onsen while he's here?"

**ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY**

The International Skee-Ball competition was in full swing, and a little dynamo was giving the local champs a run for their money.

For Hinata Urashima, there was a joyful abandon in tossing the balls with a measure of luck and skill, and the variance in the weight of the balls added an extra layer of fun.

When the competition was done with, Hinata roamed the shops along the famed boardwalk and bought the children she loved dearly some gifts. For Kaolla Su, she purchased schematics for a Skee-Ball machine from a vendor, knowing the young sweet genius would relish putting it together. For Naru, she teasingly bought boxing gloves signed by James Braddock, a boxer known for his comeback. The large thick cookbook of Jersey Shore seafood was a natural for Shinobu. For Haruka, a large consignment of salt-water taffy, with some chocolates for Sarah. A video purchased form Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum for Seta. So she went through her list, sometimes extravagant, sometimes understated. As she arranged for shipping, she considered simply spending a week in and around New Jersey, up the Shore and perhaps into Pennsylvania to see Hershey Park.

But she had an itinerary, and as someone who always stuck to their plans once they were made, decided that she would indeed be in New York City two days from then.


	4. Chapter Three The Sempai Of My Sempais

_An Author's Note about one of the plotlines follows this chapter._

**Chapter Three - The Sempai Of My Sempais Is My…**

AUGUST 15TH, 1945, THE TERRITORIAL WATERS OF THE EMPIRE OF JAPAN

Men clever enough to outwit American civilian and naval commanders (and, it was said by some, even the venerable Yamamoto himself) were in the end unable to outwit the man they touted as a living god but used mainly as a figurehead. Whether it was for the sake of resources, living space, naked raw aggression or an ideology based on racial supremacy, the war started in the name of Emperor Hirohito was called to a halt by him, under terms that guaranteed nothing, not even the integrity of his throne, to the people of the defeated Japanese Empire. His men were reportedly surrendering in some cases personally to an American General whose style ruffled some of his countrymen's feathers, but which the Japanese people understood and would greatly appreciate.

This order was not issued in time to stop one last small wave of pilots from initiating the morale-raising but militarily worthless attacks known as kamikaze. The last recorded attack had in fact occurred the day before. This one would go largely unrecorded.

This all occurred in less than five minutes before the eyes of Awa Urashima, who felt he was destined to be one of those pilots entering Heaven in his divine Emperor's name, all while sending the American would-be invaders to Hell.

Heaven had other ideas.

The wind that was supposed to guide him straight into one of the American vessels strutting arrogantly into the waters of his homeland instead fought him every step of the way. In each pass, he would catch sight of a ship, and before it even had a chance to fire at him, Urashima would find himself blown off course. The planes had been stripped of radios, but the pilots had been taught to return if no viable target presented itself. Only on extreme occasions had the lack of a target been challenged by superiors. But Awa Urashima was determined that there would not even be a hint of a whisper of loose talk about him, so returning was not an option.

Around him, the lack of experience and the war-weariness of the young pilots was proving telling. Fudo's plane was cut in two by gunners now used to these suicidal runs. Kusama attempted an ascent far too steep for his plane, burdened by explosives, to tolerate. One fool found the open sea and nothing more. One learned the hard way why smokestacks and not the big guns were preferred targets. One ignited into a fireball that somehow flew just above the highest point on an aircraft carrier, with not even its debris reaching the decks below, and burning out just shy of reaching the water.

Urashima had not thought highly of his compatriots, and that was an understatement. Yet something very like sympathy nearly stirred in him to see their attempts fail so completely. In most men, this would at least be a moment to gather or lose resolve. But Awa Urashima was not like most men. For at all times to all things, he was a complete asshole.

"If there is a god for supreme Baka, let them all go there with him. Let neither Heaven nor Hell be burdened with their clumsy load."

And for those who think all men, or even all Humans, are always this way, let the following words firmly establish Awa in a unique light.

"And again I say to The Divine Wind—get out of my way or face my curse!"

The winds buffeting him ceased, and his vision sharpened to that of a hawk's. Before him, two vessels seeking to avoid his fallen comrades had maneuvered themselves close enough to be side by side, the report of their guns holding off another wave of planes, should they come. To make matters perfect, Urashima spied men on both ships carrying ammunition to reload the large batteries. Urashima saw the opening their combined firepower left, and moved swiftly to a point where his crash would strike at both crews and the ammo they moved. He could take out two ships at once, and move into a hall of legends. He imagined children would sing of Urashima, who saved the war the weak-willed thought lost.

"Banzai!"

The descent seemed to move in slow motion. The ships below, whose near intersection had only been brief, did not move quite so slowly. The opening Urashima saw widened to a gap, and then into a valley, relatively speaking.

"I—will—not—be—denied!"

Several laws of physics did not at all agree with Urashima's boast. He would become known as a man who had two large ships side by side, with exposed piles of volatile ammunition also in the strike zone, who in the end could not hit either one. His frantic attempts to control his plane's angle of descent only gave him a picture-perfect water landing—and the American sailors were taking lots of pictures that day. Urashima's belts, which tore during the rapid descent, were unable to help him as he bounced around in the cockpit on impact.

*_**You will be denied, willful one—and I will not be cursed. The others threw their lives away, but they were respectful as they passed. You dishonor them, and me. Heaven is denied you, as is Hell, which has no time to torment mere boasters. Awa Urashima, you are a foolish little man, with your prideful certainty. I curse you with a gift some mortals plead for, but you are not capable of seeing it as such. So as you are scorned and mocked, you will pray for sleep, but sleep won't come. Not the sleep that lasts for hours, but the sleep you truly desire.***_

He awoke from this awful dream to hear a voice speaking English. Their culture was decadent, but some few American films were worth his time, so Urashima had learned the language.

"He broke every bone in his body?"

"Damned near to it. No one can even figure how it is he's alive."

Urashima heard a click.

"That can be seen to."

"I sympathize, Sergeant. But no less than Big Mac has an interest in this fella."

Mac? Mac—Arthur?

*_Did I somehow achieve my goal, and now their great general wishes to use me as part of a prisoner exchange, so venerated am I in the homeland? To be alive, yet having shown the willingness to sacrifice all? The scorn of the ladies will turn to adoration, soon. Some back in my village may be required to show their devotion more than others.*_

A baka and his pipe dream are soon parted.

"Yep. He wants this poor jerk to be on the aircraft carrier when he takes Hirohito's surrender. A sign to anybody in Japan who might still think resistance is a good idea. This fool is a living symbol of the futility of suicide runs, on foot or in the sky."

The doctor left, and only the soldier who didn't seem happy with guarding a helpless prisoner remained.

"You have got to be the biggest, unluckiest non-commissioned jerk-hole in this entire war, and I mean both theaters, and I have known some of the very biggest. You must have pissed off God himself, my friend, because we thought sure we were all goners when you made your descent. Where two ships that big found the speed to get apart like that, I'll never know."

Sam McDougal could not know that his unwilling guest was perfectly capable of understanding him, and yet still could not hear him. For along with pounds of plaster and bandages, Awa Urashima was now wrapped in enough shame to burst his heart like a balloon.

In fact, it did this on several occasions, but still he would not die.

In another place, the head nurse had taken ill, and lay down to die. Some said it was the lingering sickness from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those who had been her obedient staff would not come near her. In part this was fear of the radiation and the illness it caused. In part this was payback for one who had shown no humanity towards those she only slightly outranked.

But there was one who would not leave her side.

"Drink this, Sempai."

"I—cannot see. I was fine not so long ago."

"Sempai merely needs to rest. To regain her strength."

"No. I swore to Kami to invest the worth of my soul in this overlong war, and that is coming called due with its end. Who is it that attends me?"

"It is Hinata, Sempai. Do you wish me to go?"

The once-proud woman coughed.

"Go? And have me die alone? I am not that proud, child. In fact, right now, I am very scared. Why do you attend me, when I have called you cursed?"

"Because Sempai came to get me and the others out of the dead cities. That is why Sempai is sick now."

"But you are not sick?"

"I—do not get sick, Sempai."

The nurse reached out and touched Hinata's cheek.

"Because-you are cursed, aren't you?"

"Hai."

"Yet you are here and now my blessing. Is there no one for you, then? Would they die to be near you?"

Hinata shook her head.

"My curse does not bring death to me, Sempai. It brings me to death."

A wild thought struck the dying woman.

"How old—are you?"

Hinata looked around her. They were alone.

"Much of it is a blur. I recall a noisy bombardment the Americans made…"

The nurse almost laughed.

"They have done quite a bit of that."

"Hai. But at that time, they were led by a man named Perry."

The nurse coughed again loudly, but not from her illness.

"That was almost ninety years ago!"

The worst part was, it made sense. None of the family names she had given checked out, and even the insanity of war could not account for the wholesale erasure of tens of clans.

"My clan kept me, or at least made sure there was always a place for me to stay. That never lasts more than a few years. I am often sent away to wander, but I befriended some fox-spirits by helping them evade hunters and trappers, so I always have food. I am strong and have served warriors who taught me their ways as a reward for my obedience. I have kept my maidenhood pure—not that this has always been an easy thing. This occurred just as I first began to see boys as something other than hairy girls with extra parts."

The nurse felt her own time coming, and so asked the most obvious question her mind could still muster.

"Why are you cursed?"

"My apologies, Sempai. I am not permitted to say this, unless to someone like myself. I would not wish to curse you now, as you seek Heaven and your just rest."

The hand of one passing squeezed the hand of one who probably wished to.

"You are a hidden treasure, to be kind rather than embittered after too long a journey. One day, you will see me again, and I will guide you to another hidden treasure. Hai?"

"Hai, Sempai. Arigato. Sempai?"

Hinata walked towards the other nurses, more attendant to who among them would be the late head nurse's replacement than their patients.

"She is gone. We must bury her."

Behind what she now thought of as her desk, one of the prime candidates shrugged.

"Burn her glowing carcass and be done with it. I say…"

Hinata rose up and smashed the desk to splinters. The others shuddered to see this. She looked around at them.

"Get your lazy fat asses to work or I will treat you as I did that piece of furniture. Now take our fallen Sempai, who was a good if difficult woman, and bury her properly—and there better be a cleric to cant prayers over her grave! The rest of you—do the work of sworn healers or face me in the field outside!"

When they had scattered and at last begun to do their jobs once more, a voice came from behind Hinata.

"I never liked that desk. I don't like giving people who must work so obvious place to sit down in front of their wounded charges. It would seem that we have found our new head nurse."

The hospital administrator, a man once scorned by his family for seeking this title when a war was on, smiled at the girl whose partial story he had overheard on his way to pay her predecessor his respects. He was very much in earnest. Hinata picked up a pack of cigarettes from the remains of the smashed desk, lit it, and placed one in her mouth. It wasn't like it could stunt her growth, after all.

"So it would seem, Manager-San."

**TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11****TH****, 2001**

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, SHINOBU URASHIMA**

The young woman stopped and smiled before crossing it out—as she did every single day.

"_**Okay, okay…I know."**_

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, SHINOBU MAEHARA—DARN IT ALL**

_I don't know why I do that to myself. I sometimes realize that I'm lucky Sempai Naru isn't the type to forbid him to have female friends. That I couldn't do without. I still recall just after Sempais got serious about each other, and Kei found me rifling through his-collection of art and photos. Yeah, it was his porn stash. He was flabbergasted, but when I asked him to swallow his sense of place and just recommend some to me, he finally did what none of the other girls' would—explain the sometimes twisted logic those magazines and videos use. Mind you, he strained to keep it all in euphemism mode, but thoroughly so. Really, the logic is a simple one, but for me he tried his best. That was what I really asked of him, and he gave it. He got his revenge, though. The final magazine he gave me featured a young man and a younger girl who made their connection when she asked him to recommend some porn. I had to laugh, because it meant to my mind that he took me seriously. In fact, it was maybe that knowledge that made me join the others in acting like an ass just before and to some extent, inside Molmol. How could it be that he took me seriously but wouldn't take me, period? That made me angry, and being that angry made me a little crazy. Or maybe a lot crazy._

_Small wonder Sempai Kei and I get on like we do. We both make these grandiose efforts to stand tall before the others. Until recently, his efforts at such were callously dismissed—while mine were sweetly and amusedly dismissed. Ohhh—every time—and I mean every time I try and act all sophisticated, I only end up making myself look even more like a foolish little girl. The incidents are actually very few, but I always make sure they're memorable._

_When I brought a boy I liked home, I thought the others would envy me, since I seemed to be the first one who actually had one come in to say hello, as opposed to just picking one of us up and later running for cover—apologies to Kitsune—I mean Mitsu—and Sempai Naru, but that happened more than once. That boy was Kenichi, the idiot whose second appearance almost ruined last Tuesday. Not that the first appearance wasn't scarring. I think I cried for weeks every second that I was not in school._

_I may still be naïve, but when a guy has his thing squeezed by a nearsighted naked pretty girl, his being stunned stupid by this doesn't seem so hard to understand. That was how we all first met Sempai Kei, for the most part. I was stunned by seeing it that night—mainly because you are supposed to be stunned. That's what everyone tells you. You're a young girl. If he flashes it, you're supposed to be offended. I considered all that well after the fact. At the time, the others—and forgive me, sometimes the phrase 'psycho witches' does apply—seemed to want to gut this poor shaking wreck of a man all for resolving one of life's mysteries for me. I mean, I didn't get pregnant from looking at it, nor did my mother teleport in and demand we marry, and to my knowledge, tribes of yokai and oni didn't suddenly assault the Inn. I honestly thought they might kill him (not realizing the mere presence of a man was shaking them up worse than it ever could have for me), so I tried to act all sophisticated, and said I barely saw anything, because it was so brief-and small. What I had meant to try and say was, that wasn't my first sighting, and I'd seen all kinds of boys and men and their privates, and it was all no big deal. The only thing my words did was crush him further, to the point the others left him alone out of pity._

_Then there was the beach. I was the 'sacrifice' meant to raise his fallen spirits. I was to pretend to be out cold while he gave me mouth to mouth. Instead, my nerves seized up and I gave him foot to crotch. Is that when he gave up on me, I wonder? Did he love me up till then, when he realized this stupid little girl was too jumpy to be worth it?_

_At least I only got blasted drunk on our dinner date. As Sempai Naru gave me a hangover remedy the next day, I asked if there was any possibility that Sempai Kei and I had done it while I was out. Mind you, this was the same woman who at that time still regularly clobbered him. But when I asked that, she nearly clobbered me. Looking back, I understand what kind of Baka-Prime question that really was. But then she calmed down—probably because someone so silly and stupid could no longer be considered a threat._

_Molmol I out and out forgive myself for. I did stupid things on the way and while there, but that was mainly the work of three other people ; Su, Mitsune and O-Sempai Seta. Dragging me into that insanity when I was insane with love-grief cannot be laid at my feet._

_I still managed to strike out on my own when Sempai Kei and I had dinner at Alice-San's Johnny Rocket's. After proclaiming my intention to be his mistress, I symbolically seized his hot dog from the tray and wiped the mustard from my mouth after taking a big bite—smiling all the while. As Sempai tried to tell me-the girls and guys in his ecchi videos behave in ways that would get them all locked up in real life. In my case, locked up for worst supporting performance._

_I'll stop writing for now. I'm expecting an early call from Papa, and I have to resolve a lingering doubt from my all-grown-up wannabe performance last Tuesday. I hope I can. Because if I intend to remain close to my sempais, then that means also dealing on a regular basis with their oldest friend. I only hope, after what I've heard, she can still be one of mine._

_Having a rack like hers wouldn't hurt, either._

"Hate you? Shinobu, never!"

"But—Sempai Naru said you were really upset with me last week."

Mutsumi chuckled.

"We all were-and now we're not. You let worrying over that dinner date get to you, and you weren't acting like yourself."

Shinobu still looked and felt worried.

"But didn't you also say I got off easy, as regards my part in Molmol?"

Mutsumi glanced at her watch, and then sat down with Shinobu.

"The only thing I ever really resented you for was based on the fact that I was suspicious of some of your past crying jags."

"Huh? How so?"

Mutsumi shrugged.

"You never hit Kei until recently, and then only twice before swearing not to again. But you had to know at some point that your running off crying about some action of his was going to get him swatted by the others. I kind of got the impression that, while you would never want to hit him yourself, you were content to see him punished by the others, knowing on some level that you could make it happen."

Shinobu's head swam for a moment.

"Am I that devious?"

"No, silly—not actively. But I was, before things changed, on the verge of telling you that. And do you know why?"

"To stop Sempai Kei from getting hit because of me?"

Mutsumi shrugged.

"Only in part. I saw early on that they were a determined lot, and sweet Kei just couldn't keep his face out of our chests, could he? But the other part, Shinobu, was for you."

"For me?"

Mutsumi glanced again at her watch.

"Remember, I wasn't around when you were brand-new here. By the time we met, I didn't see a baby. I saw the only woman here who didn't know Kei from that sandbox who had a real chance at nabbing him. I saw the woman strong enough to cook and clean for all of us, and sometimes, the only joy in my Kei's existence. I see so much of him in you."

Their eyes met, and Mutsumi chuckled again.

"Yeah-poor choice of phrase. But then, I am a bit awkward. Shinobu, I refuse to baby you, not out of some contempt, but out of deepest respect. Naru sees it too. If she ever lets that temper of hers get out of control again, she knows there are two people he would seek out in a heartbeat, and either of whom could have him in that same heartbeat. I refuse to go easy on you out of that same respect. I refuse to baby you—because I don't see a baby here."

**JOURNAL**

_Okay. I officially love her. And maybe in that light, even last Tuesday's debacle can be seen in a good light. If I can get everyone—even Sempais-that upset with me—then maybe my days of being simply sweet little Shinobu are done. I can actually see myself ending up like Sempai Naru was three years ago-ummm—I mean confidence-wise. I doubt Arlo-San is immortal._

_But Kami pleaaaaase give me some Otohime DNA. You know the kind._

_Everyone's gone for the day super-early. All three of our Todai entrants are in class, which is unusual. Mitsu's making the rounds of some contractors, getting prices and probably more ideas about the Sou. Motoko is taking a round of cram classes almost all day—I just know she's gonna be next in. Su is registering with various government officials, and has to take some oaths to not try and overthrow the Emperor, The Prime Minister and the Diet while she is a resident in Japan. _

_But then the call comes._

The connection on the phone-line was shaky, to say the least.

"Papa?"

"Shinobu-have to get-resolve this-can't keep the adoption a secret from you anymore-it doesn't matter-love you. Have to g-"

Shinobu had spoken to her father for all of fifteen seconds. Her connection to reality was shaky, to say the least.

**JOURNAL**

_I need my Sempais, but they are not here. I need my parents in residence to help me deal with the bombshell my Oto-San just dropped._

_In an automatic mode, I make the dinner for tonight, like a living food processor. Arlo-San has promised not to bring his own cooking-though it is pretty darn good, and makes him all the cuter to me-and Mutsumi's not-jerk brother will also be there, much to Motoko's reserved but visible delight._

_I'm-adopted? But I look so much like my pare-No, I must drive that thought out. I can't handle it right now. Right now, even the painful distraction that was Mitsune's photo of my Sempais doing it would be welcome. I just can't be-shut it down, Maehara-if that is my name. Shinobu-deriving from 'hidden'. Was that a joke on your part, Fath-Maehara-San?_

_I know my own weaknesses. If I allow this to destroy me, on top of my recent reactions to losing out to Sempai Naru, I will never recover. Besides, my Sempais adopted me too. Maybe I am just someone people like to take in and take care of. There are worse ways to be._

_That just leaves me to get my butt to school. I hope my friend Amy is there. She calls me her lifeline on Japanese culture since she moved here—she's waiting on her folks, who are big wheels in the financial community in the States, to join her. By answering her questions, I hope to avoid asking too many of my own._

_It just __***can't***__ be true._

"So is the Sempai Clan powerful and all?"

Shinobu stared blankly before catching on. Amy's Japanese was quite good, but her New England accent meant a nasal sound was injected into the mix that had to be accounted for.

"Baka-Sempai is not a clan. His clan name is Urashima. Sempai is just what I call him."

"Oh. Sorry. Is that like Only-Chan-oh, I'm such a goof!"

"You are not none neither—to coin a phrase. You're in a new place, and you're trying to learn its ways. A Sempai is like this, Amy-San : A sempai is another parent. A sempai is a sibling. A sempai is devotion that is freely chosen, yet at times binds you even more than the familial devotion you are born to, and pray the two should never come into conflict. If one of you is about to be struck by a car, you and your sempai should fight it out over who saves who. A sempai is all things to you, and you should expect to be all things to them, always."

"Wow, good explanation, Maehara-s-err—Shinobu-ch—ummmm-what do I call you?"

"Shinobu's fine. I mean, the honorific system hits us too. We understand it, but there's a bunch of ways to say the exact same thing-kind of like the Eskimos have different words for snow."

"Aleuts, Shinobu-I learned that the hard way."

A voice from behind Shinobu boomed out.

"I would have expected that my students' student would know that, Maehara-Chan."

Amy's eyes went wide, along with the eyes of nearly every girl—and not a few of the boys—present in the schoolyard. Shinobu turned and gulped at the sight of the imposing figure.

"O-Sempai Seta!"

She got up immediately from and bowed. Amy whispered a question.

"Who..?"

"Noriyasu Seta—my sempai's sempai."

"Which sempai?"

"Both of them!"

"So he's like a twice-over Grandfather?"

Seta smiled and winked an eye at Amy.

"Better not say that in front of my wife, kid. Implications, you know."

"His wife?"

Shinobu was getting nervous, but tried to be traditionally nervous.

"His wife is my Sempai's aunt, and the former Ryobo—House Mother—at our dorm."

"Wow—I may not be Japanese, but I know that's a lot of deep connections."

Seta was suddenly talking to Shinobu's homeroom teacher, who squealed in front of him and hugged the stuffings out of him.

"Yes, it is. And while I will obey his wish, whatever it is, I dread it."

"Why? Is he some kind of Ickey guy?"

"Ummm—you mean Ecchi, right—but more like you mean pervert? No, he's not that at all."

The sound of his laughter boomed across the yard. Shinobu grimaced.

"He's just a giant goofball."

**JOURNAL**

_No, that wasn't the emergence of 'Dark Shinobu'. I like O-Sempai. He is funny, and three people I love think the world of him. Since he kind of looks like an older Sempai Kei, I can't fault him on his looks. It's just—it's like __**every last thing**__ that I do not like about Sempai Kei is magnified in this man, except no one calls him out on it-they even praise him for the same basic things that used to get my Kei so much trouble._

_Maybe that's not fair or accurate. Maybe it's just that, with the identity of my parents in doubt, I can't deal with a surrogate 'grandfather' at this time. Yet I have no choice._

_Noriyasu Seta is O-Sempai, twice over. If I ever refused him, I think I might even have to leave Japan._

Shinobu's teacher chastised her.

"Maehara-Chan! Shame on you for not revealing that Seta-Sama is your O-Sempai and Obi-San. Half the instructors here took classes from this great man."

Seta chuckled.

"Actually, Taehara-Kun? She just calls my wife Auntie. She's never called me Uncle."

"Well, she SHOULD!"

Shinobu winced, but spoke anyway.

"Sensei? Shouldn't I get to class before the bell rings?"

The teacher handed her a piece of paper.

"Amy-San will deliver your homework for this week to the Hinata-Sou. Good luck in aiding Seta-Sama, Maehara-Chan. You have our envy."

Shinobu stared at the pass from school in utter shock.

"Just like that? Was the principal one of your students, too, O-Sempai?"

"Hooo-no. He was one of my housemates. He cheated off me to pass History."

His look turned serious.

"Shinobu, I need your help. She's probably scared, and seeing your friendly face if and when we find her, will likely calm her down better than I could alone."

"Calm down-who?"

Seta laughed again.

"Fu-didn't I mention? This morning on Paraklese Island, someone kidnapped Nyamo. We believe the abductor is gonna set down in Tokyo about Noon. Are you in?"

"To rescue her?"

"That—and I believe you may be in a unique position to talk the abductor down."

Before Shinobu could ask the question that answer inspired, Seta moved like lightning for the road just outside the school, and Shinobu became very very afraid.

"O-Sempai—are you driving us there?"

She hoped and prayed the answer was no. Launchpad McQuack frankly had a better record at handling motion crafts.

"No time-we're hopping a ride on-"

Seta pointed at a giant pink mechanical turtle.

"MECHA-SAMA SUPER X 4!"

Shinobu felt her entire body reverberating from his proclamation.

"Why did you shout like that?"

"I shouted?"

At the wheel of MSSX4 was as grizzled an old man as Shinobu had ever seen, wearing a fedora hat and sporting an eyepatch.

"He never even realizes it, Girlie. Nori here has a flair for the idiotically dramatic."

At first, Shinobu wondered why such an old man was their pilot. But she relented because one, Grandma was obviously a good pilot, and two, it kept Seta out of the driver's seat. Seta moved to protest the man's opinion of him.

"Hank…"

The old man cut him off summarily.

"Nori, I am your O-Sempai times four or five. Now, what were you going to say?"

"Nothing."

Shinobu looked over their conveyance.

"Why is it pink?"

Seta made a shushing motion with his fingers over his lips.

"What Sarah doesn't know won't hurt me."

Old Hank checked over one of the ship's fins.

"Dang! We lost a piece of hull plating-when someone just had to drive for a spell."

"Hank, you were exhausted."

"I'm still a better pilot and driver asleep or dead than you were when I first met you—and you've lost ground ever since. Now where we gonna find that plating?"

Shinobu looked around her.

"Some kids eat their cafeteria lunch around here, so…"

Shinobu simply seemed to reach around a corner and pulled out three metal trays. Seta looked at her with new eyes.

"How?"

"Whenever kids eat their lunch, inevitably some ditch things where they shouldn't. I knew some kids eat their cafeteria lunch here, and I know when I do, there are never enough trays. Will these do?"

Placed against the gap, the trays simply melted into place, the fin as good as new. Seta smiled.

"The finest in Molmolian nano-tech."

Girl and old man together started openly.

"Molmolian?"

"Molmol. Why'd it have to be Molmol?"

Hank looked at Shinobu.

"Yours?"

She nodded.

"Shot at, arrested, forcibly conscripted—by my best friend. Yours?"

He rolled his visible eye.

"Tigers, nearly dumped into a volcano, gauntlet of spears—by the guy giving my bachelor party-as my bachelor party."

Shinobu bowed.

"Hank-San wins."

As the motor started up, the old man shook his head.

"Actually, I prefer to be called…"

As the wind rushed past them, he was drowned out. Shinobu approached their pilot.

"Sir—how did you lose your eye?"

He gave her a very dirty leer and decidedly wicked grin.

"My wife found me flirting with a cute-as-hell Japanese schoolgirl."

Shinobu found herself forced to smile. Tokyo International came in sight.

"We don't have clearance, so we'll have to hoof it. Hank? How will we find you?"

Hank looked at his students' student.

"I'll be the one driving the giant pink flying mechanical turtle."

"Suppose there's more than one?"

As Seta left, Hank stopped Shinobu.

"He's your O-Sempai kid-but I'm his. Descendant, I grant you permission to respectfully interpret his orders."

"Many thanks, Grandfather."

Catching up with him, Shinobu and Seta ran for the airport's main entrance.

"Won't they have to disembark?"

"Her family said the abductor was traveling light."

"But Nyamo is no weakling. Won't she put up a struggle?"

"They said she didn't seem to be resisting."

Shinobu was sensing something she didn't like one bit.

"Then how do you know she was kidnapped?"

"That is what her family said."

The rush of things took her thoughts away. Inside, the boards indicated the flight in question had arrived and was disembarking. At customer service, Seta asked a question and Shinobu drew an odd stare.

"We're trying to find a young woman who may have been…"

"Well, that was fast."

The receptionist was looking at Shinobu.

"What was fast?"

"Well, I just told you that you should dress more decently, and here you are…what happened to your tan?"

Shinobu thought quickly.

"Which way did I go?"

The confused receptionist pointed left.

"Thanks!"

"Maehara."

"Yes?"

The receptionist now looked even more confused.

"I thought—that you would want the name of the man traveling with-the other you?"

"That's great! So what is it?"

"Maehara."

"Yes?"

"Who are you?"

"Shinobu Maehara."

"Oh—so is Yasuharu Maehara your husband, brother?"

Slowly, Shinobu turned and glared at Seta, who grinned ever more broadly as his position worsened.

"We-helll-I did say that you were in a unique position to talk him down."

Shinobu felt the metal in her hand, and this time didn't question where the skillet came from.

"You—will tell me immediately everything you haven't bothered to as yet."

"Shinobu-"

She twirled her pan like a gunslinger girl's gun.

"I am as determined as Kei, I can get as angry as your wife, and I can hit like Naru! So talk!"

_**THREE HOURS LATER**_

Hank walked into the lock-up.

"Girlie, threatening a man in the middle of an airport is Seta-level stupid."

Hank turned his attention to the other one.

"What did you do to piss off this sweet young thing?"

"I—kind of failed to mention that her father was the suspected abductor-of the girl who looks exactly like her. And now we've lost our lead."

Hank thought for a moment.

"Girlie, you got a picture of your Dad?"

Shinobu produced it, and Hank nearly growled. He showed the picture to Seta, then slapped him with it.

"Remind you of anyone?"

"Oh-my. Now, we don't have to worry about Nyamo!"

Shinobu sighed.

"That's good."

"Now, the fate of the world and the universe itself hangs in the balance."

Shinobu looked up at Old Hank.

"He does this all the time, doesn't he?"

"Since he was nine."

Oddly (or perhaps not so oddly) the invoking of Grandma Hina's name got the charges dropped against Shinobu, and they were on their way to a rural location the two men knew of.

"Why would my father kidnap Nyamo?"

"I no longer believe he did. I think I know why he sought her out, though."

"Please don't tell me he has a daughter fetish."

"That—I couldn't say. But no, he is seeking something here. How much do you know about your father?"

Shinobu began to tear up.

"Yasuharu Maehara is not my father. He told me this morning I was adopted."

Seta gave her a quick hug, and the goofball briefly became her Sempai in an older body.

"Don't be so sure of your facts. Archeologist's first rule."

Hank bristled.

"That's NOT our first rule!"

"Hank!"

"WHAT?"

"CHASM!"

The MSSX4 stopped short of the gaping maw of a valley. Seta wiped his head.

"The gravity compensators don't work so well over a gap this deep. I'll have to take it down and re-ascend from there."

Hank was out and about with a machete in hand.

"I'll take Shinobu and seek a path up here. They don't know what they're getting into."

Moving through the underbrush like a pro, Hank kept his eye on a kid who was better prepared for this than he'd allowed.

"Hang on, Shin-chan. I think this is going to have a good pay-off."

"It had better, Grampy. I'd hate to leave this world with no one knowing it. Especially-"

"Keitaro? I met him while Nori was in the states last. Good kid. Seems at least a little more capable than Nori, when it comes to basic common sense. But no one will ever be the finder that Nori is. He can just—"

"Hank-San, wait!"

Shinobu reached down and found a disc with a hole in the middle.

"Nyamo's nearby. This is a Paraklesian Cooking Tray, meant for poisonous animals."

"Good girl-the hole catches and drains out whatever poisons the fire doesn't cook out. But it's not from your friend-unless she's thousands of years old."

"Huh?"

"This area was once one of the few Japanese outposts of the Great Turtle Civilization. It all begins to make sense."

"Respect, O-Sempai, but nothing is making sense. My father—who may not even be my father- has kidnapped a girl who looks exactly like me and has taken her to an outpost of a lost civilization that, every time I get anywhere near, trouble and chaos follows. The bottom is-"

Hank grabbed her and pulled her back from a large precipice.

"-falling out from under me?"

The gap was much smaller than the one Seta was trying to field, but for them, it looked like the end.

"We'll have to turn around. There's no way past this."

Hank reached into his carry-sack and pulled out a bullwhip.

"Don't be so sure—and hang on!"

His whip snagged an outcropping of rock near the middle of the gap. Grabbing Shinobu up, the ancient man swung across.

"You—O-Sempai-you—you're—you're-"

Hank grinned.

"Took you that long to figure it out?"

"But you'd have to be over 100!"

"What can I say? I drink from the right cup."

"Huh?"

"Don't believe everything you see in the movies, kid. Some things I keep around."

Shinobu mouthed the words 'Oh That Cup' before they resumed their walk. Just a short while later, they sighted Shinobu's father and Nyamo standing in the ruins of what had once been a home. Their hands were linked, and they were reciting prayers in Japanese and Paraklesy. Nyamo saw her duplicate.

"Shinobu, come quickly! We need you here. And you've brought Mister Junior!"

Hank mouthed the word 'Dad!' as they approached. Shinobu hugged and held Yasuharu Maehara.

"I don't care if I am adopted. You are and will always be my Papa!"

Yasu gently pushed her away.

"Shin-Baka! You're not adopted! I have a scar on my arm from where your mother hit me while in delivery. I'M the one whose adopted! Quickly, join with me and Nyamo in saying prayers over your grandfather's birthplace."

"Papa, Granpapa was born outside Yokohama…wait, you mean that Nyamo and I have the same grandfather?"

Nyamo hugged her cousin hard.

"I knew there was a connection between us. We are family!"

"Now hurry, you two. It's almost 3 PM."

Hank smiled.

"The One-Hundredth Anniversary of your granpa's birth, kid. I first met him during the war. Your Dad's a dead ringer for him. We had to work together when King Jamba Lya of Molmol kidnapped-errr—two important American and Japanese leaders, trying to broker peace."

"How important?"

Hank relented.

"One sat on a throne, one used a wheelchair. It ended better than it deserved to."

With the hour approaching, the three said what they needed to, and Nyamo smiled and looked at the diminishing sun.

"Grandfather! As I vowed, I have come to the place of your birth on the mark of a century's passage—and I have brought your son who was not my parent and met again my dear friend who is also revealed to me as family…"

Her smile faded abruptly.

"The spirits are unhappy. Hate rules. Blind, unyielding hate. Mountains crumble, far from here. The dread gate opens…"

She fainted, and her newfound Uncle caught her.

"Poor kid. She'd been up all night, but the chance to keep her promise was too great a temptation."

Seta flew in then, and walked over to the remains of the old home his more direct Sempai had been born in.

"Hank?"

"He said he hid it in the bowels of the Earth, Nori."

"Shin-chan? Find the root-cellar."

Shinobu almost unconsciously moved to a certain spot, dug her hand down, and found a bound bamboo doorway in the ground.

"How did I do that?"

Seta was again smiling broadly.

"Recent historical and archeological studies have stopped focusing on rulers, and instead focus on the ruled. You have a talent for finding things that ordinary everyday people used to cook, store and keep food in. I knew I'd find a piece of Keitaro deep inside you!"

Hank hit Seta with his hat while Shinobu blushed as never before.

"Can we just find…whatever it is and go home?"

Yasu Maehara held his little girl tight.

"You poor thing. Thinking I'd spring news that big on you—and then hearing a piece of innuendo like that?"

"You've never met Mitsu, have you Papa?"

They both helped Nyamo revive while Seta went through a root cellar abandoned many years. He came out holding a wax cylinder.

"The next piece of The Toudai Rose puzzle is in our hands. Maybe we don't even need to worry about the Red Gate."

Hank shook his head.

"I've heard that one before. Nah, Crowley and his bunch planned this too well. They broke poor Phil Lovecraft so much, he had to write those stories to hide it all in. But this is important, no doubt. Lucky thing your boy's girl turned out to be Oikura's granddaughter."

"Nah, Hank. At the Hinata-Sou, there are no coincidences. Just an amazing family I happened to buy into."

"I can see that. Say, where's the turtle?"

The MSSX4 floated over from the nearby valley, a woman and a girl with glares to melt steel standing in it.

"NORI!"

"DAD!"

Hank walked over to Haruka and Sarah to broker peace. He glanced at Seta.

"You…didn't tell them anything, did you?"

Haruka laughed with Hank, while Sarah went to the Maeharas and Nyamo saying _'I Knew It!'_ to their familial revelation. On the way to drop Nyamo off at her home, Shinobu saw the coordinates.

"Seta-Sama, we're not headed to Paraklese. We're headed to…"

She dreaded saying the word.

"Molmol. Hank-San, will you protect me?"

Hank put his hand on her shoulder and smiled.

"Kid—you're on your own."

Nyamo, tending to her sleeping new Uncle, shrugged.

"Nothing is wrong with Molmol, Shinobu. My fiancé awaits me there, with my family who he gathered in my absence."

"You have a fiancé? He's Molmolian?"

"Oh, yes. A very wealthy and powerful man. My family says we must wait, but he says for me he will wait forever, if need be."

*_Oh, Please.* _thought Shinobu. *_Let it be anyone…anyone at all…anyone except…*_

The craft landed, and indeed Nyamo's family awaited her in the company of her very powerful and wealthy suitor, whose arms she ran into.

"Nyamo!"

"Lambda Lu! My King!"

Shinobu began to have a very bad Tuesday once again. The girl-now her cousin-who looked exactly like Shinobu was set to marry the man who looked exactly like Keitaro.

"Errr—Sire? Weren't you set to marry Amalla Su?"

Lamda Lu pshawed this.

"Her? She gets angry and hits me all the time. What man could possibly put up with that every single night when he could have a treasure like Nyamo?"

Nyamo nodded.

"Besides—he can always marry her later. She and I get along just fine."

The new family members said goodbye. They left on the MSSX4, and Shinobu pointed at Seta.

"In 18 years, after your child is born and grown…I WILL BE WAITING!"

Seta whispered to his wife.

"I take it now would not be a good time to tell her I introduced Lamda Lu to Nyamo?"

Haruka rubbed his head and sighed.

"At least you're learning."

Sarah shook her head.

"I was right to tell King Lamda no, right? Cause I have school in the morning."

Demolished in her father's arms, she heard his story.

"Your grandfather was devastated by your grandmother's death, and left me with the Maeharas just before he left to study Paraklese. After a certain point, we weren't even sure he was alive anymore, and Mama and Papa showed me so much love, I agreed to take their name."

"But why did you never tell me that? Why did you think I would be thrown off?"

"Well, you always adored Granma Maehara. I knew you'd be upset that you weren't her blood."

Shinobu sighed.

"Papa—she kind of scared me silly when you and Mama separated. She said I'd be bounced from relative to relative. I'll always love her, but I would have understood her a little better if I had known how you were bounced around."

Yasu held Shinobu close.

"Eh, Nobody's Perfect, Shin-Chan. Howsabout I take you out to dinner?"

Shinobu sat bolt upright.

"DINNER!"

The Mecha-Sama Super X4 made like a shot for the Hinata-Sou. Inside, everyone had been waiting for Shinobu, and greeted her father.

"Everyone please vacate my kitchen—except Sempai Kei—I need someone to whine to. Please?"

**JOURNAL**

_O-Sempai Hank has agreed to have dinner with us, and even in her all-business bender, Mitsu is as girlish as any of us around him. Papa simply doesn't get to the Sou often enough, though I can tell Arlo wishes he'd known he was coming. Motoko's 'guest' not date is Mutsumi's brother Koichi, who brought her a small box of chocolates._

_I'd forgotten that I'd made dinner pretty much in advance, so Sempai Kei and I have a nice talk while I finalize and reheat._

Keitaro laughed, but he made sure Shinobu knew that he was laughing with her.

"He can be a bit much. But I learned such an incredible amount from him—what are you doing?"

Shinobu held up a slip of paper, yellowed and crinkled.

"It's a recipe for lemon pepper tilapia a guest left for Grandma-in 1959— _Come to Hyannisport when you can, Hina. Love, Jack and Jackie_. Hmm. Wonder who they were?"

Keitaro whisked the paper away from her.

"Looks like you've got the touch. Shin, my Uncle can be a trip. But he means well, and it's almost always a trip worth taking."

"Almost?"

"Molmol."

"Speaking of Molmol and marriages-Sempai, is fate just messing with me?"

He squeezed her free hand.

"Maybe fate is just jealous of what we have together."

She smiled, but shrugged as she put down the bowls.

"What exactly do you call our near-physical duplicates becoming engaged to be married, so soon after we established who we are and are not to each other?"

Kei shrugged.

"I'd call that the summation of us : Always tender but always awkward. Besides which, I firmly consider Molmol to be part of an alternate universe."

Shinobu thought back to something she overheard.

"Sempai, what is the Toudai Rose?"

Keitaro didn't look happy to hear that said.

"That thing? It's the artifact that caused all the trouble in Molmol. It has an inscription of a rose by a tower with a gate. The legends say it keeps the world that is from colliding with the worlds that aren't. Don't let Su hear that I said this, but I'd just as soon never see it or Molmol again."

Shinobu grabbed some bowls, and bid Keitaro do the same.

"Friends, sempais, family-lend me your appetites."

Kei nodded.

"We come to feed Caesar—not to bury him."

Shinobu winked.

"Except maybe that uncle of yours. The jury is still out on that one."

**JOURNAL**

_After dinner, I flatly told Arlo how I was on the rebound from Kei. He understood, and said he would rather build a stew-something slow and steady than endures rather than a soufflé that pops at the first bump._

_Then he stole a kiss. It was as brief as brief gets, and only our lips met. Yet for that one moment, I could honestly say __**'Kei Who?'**__ and mean it. Which made me feel less rotten than it should have. I think he was about to try again when Su rushed out to tell us something._

_Please, Kami. No more interesting times. I'll even let Arlo to second base early, but let peace and dullness prevail, just for a while._

_**9PM, Local Time, The Hinata-Sou**_

In the living room, everyone was seated around the TV. Mitsu pointed to the screen.

"I thought they were running some kind of disaster movie. But this is the news. This is happening right out of New York. A plane just crashed into one of the Twin Towers."

Mutsumi stared at the screen and took on a look of obvious horror.

"A commuter plane?"

"Nah. This was a jet airliner. Big one. What could drive it that far off course?"

As they were talking, further reports spoke of another such plane crashing into one of the other towers. Motoko shook her head.

"One plane crashing like that could be a sad accident. Two indicates an act of war."

Naru looked ill.

"Do you know how many people work in those Towers? I did a school report on New York City's infrastructure. What if the fire burns in the subway tunnels below the buildings?"

Su looked with eyes wide but confused.

"Who would do this? What about the people in the planes?"

Shinobu tried to be optimistic. This was difficult.

"Disasters and terrorist attacks happen all over the world. Americans and especially New Yorkers are tough. They can handle this-can't they?"

The tears were already in her voice as she finished. Koichi's phone went off. It was his foreman at the Maintenance firm he worked for.

"Motoko-Chan? Sis? I gotta bail. They want me in Tokyo ASAP—in case maybe these attacks are part of a worldwide thing. Don't know what I'd do against all that, though."

His fist met Motoko's and she wished him well rather tenderly. Normally, such a thing would draw oooh's and ah's from the others. This was not normal. Sarah was in tears, held by her father. The pair had been on top of those same towers just before the misadventure in Molmol started up. Haruka asked Old Hank if he knew anyone that worked in that area.

"It's a big area, Ruka. Odds are, everyone is gonna know someone before this is over."

The old man felt just a little older. Arlo's cell-phone rang next.

"Uh, Kei-Sempai? My Mom wants to talk to you—it's important."

Keitaro took the phone and heard Alice's words. He then took his aunt aside, spoke, and she seized and held onto him for dear life. Naru ran to Arlo.

"What did she say?"

Arlo Guthrie felt like running. That he did not, he would later realize, had been among the most important decisions of his life.

"My Mom said that Hinata-Dono called her from New York about an hour before all this started. Said she was all excited about taking an aerial tour of the city in her little plane. It was supposed to start fifteen minutes after that. Now—she can't get back through to her."

Naru tried to step back from the facts.

"Phone and cell lines just could be overwhelmed right now."

Motoko attempted a defense.

"She perhaps never got up in the air. There are always delays on small airfields."

Mitsu channeled her old self for all it was worth.

"She stopped off, had a beer, and some knucklehead told her she couldn't fly that way. Probably cursing him out as we speak."

Su held Sarah while Seta joined their nephew in calming his wife. Shinobu sat with Kei and had no words. Mutsumi openly mumbled.

"Grandma Hina, I'm all alone. Could you find someone to play with me, here in the sandbox?"

Except for news (including two other such planes), all was silence after that until about an hour later when the news of the first collapse occurred.

As they held and kept to each other and awaited some kind of word, all felt as though a harsh wind now blew through the Hinata-Sou, perhaps blowing away its founder in the process.

_**THE AIRSPACE IN AND AROUND NEW YORK CITY**_

Had the plane struck hers any at all, she would have been finished instantly, curse or no curse. She knew that much.

Hinata Urashima also knew that she had to quickly regain control of her plane, thrown off by the backwash of the first jetliner's passage into oblivion. The sun had glared directly in her eyes several times, and the explosion when the plane met its hijackers' target was still ringing in her ears. But she knew how to fly a plane, and she knew she had to gain a sense of where she was to do this. Finally clearing her senses and righting her aircraft, she looked out.

Ahead of her were the legendary, song-inspiring cliffsides facing the Hudson River known as the New Jersey Palisades.

Fifteen seconds before the plane struck the cliffsides, Hinata swore she heard her husband's voice and felt his arms around her.

"Awa?"

**AND NOW A FEW WORDS ON A TENDER SUBJECT, OR 'TOO SOON?'**

_First off, let me thank again those who are reading and have read 'Life After Molmol' and hopefully will continue to read it. You have helped make a bad period in my life, as resumes and applications hit a brick economic wall, a lot more bearable._

_I really should have known that including the 9/11 attacks in Book Two would provoke some criticism. For my naivete in this matter, I do apologize. I should also add that I have been writing 9/11 fic since 9/12/2001, no joke. I have included it in other stories, though perhaps an LH audience hasn't read those, which is understandable. So why add such a sad reality to a funny fantasy piece about an unlucky everydude and his eventual sort-of harem?_

_I do feel like I already brought some non-animanga reality into this world. Book One ignored the 'oh well it's just wacky' excuse that sees many a character from even having to see the doghouse and put almost all of them through the wringer, especially Kitsune and Su. But that was not wholly outside the realm of Love Hina, and it addressed an arc I now find I was not alone in criticizing._

_I'll go into what I intended to deliver at story's end. But why I chose 9/11 goes to several things. One, it is an instantly recognizable event, especially in America. Two, it is huge enough to have something happen tangentially without being either ridiculous or disrespectful. Third and finally, there is a convergence of sorts. You see, a little more than a month after 9/11, on October 31__st__, 2001, something came to an end. It was the final chapter in a saga about a seemingly hopeless nerd and his pursuit of a woman who seemed a hopeless shrew-and in this finale they at last married. Once I found out this connection, I couldn't let it go. The harsh reality took over just as the fairy tale romance concluded. This story began to form in my mind, and what you see and will see is the result._

_I respect the memories of those who died and the grieving of those left behind. I know a lot of people who lost people that sad day. Nearby Middletown, New Jersey (I live at the Jersey Shore in a town called Belmar) saw almost as many losses as New York itself, and per capita, an even higher percentage. On 9/15/2001, a preacher in that area told me how many funerals he had been presiding over. That man is the stepfather of my dear friend Jess, married to my old friend Ryan, on the day Jess gave birth to my beautiful angel of a niece, Sam. She came to us at the best possible time, a ray of light in a very dark week, and someday I hope to tell her this when she can fully grasp such an enormous loss and shock._

_To those who may be offended by the timing or placement of the story, I apologize. But while I will not dismiss you, I will go ahead with this piece. I can only ask you to trust me ; If you liked Book One, stay with me and see how Book Two turns out. I think you will find it is worth the payoff. For the record, certain elements in play are meant to set up Book Three._

_This continues the story of how our friends grew up, amidst joy and pain, love and loss, laughter and tears. I am and continue to be so grateful for the opportunity to write it and have you read it._

'**Goji' Rob Morris, 1AM on Wednesday June 30****th****, 2010**


	5. Chapter Four Remember

**Chapter Four - Remember**

_**LATE SEPTEMBER, 1945 **_

The American Commander talked with one supposedly of divine birth like he was talking to a peer. That ruler's aides, rankled at this treatment, were only partly comforted when they were told that General MacArthur spoke to President Truman in that same tone of voice.

"No, Your Majesty. You taking responsibility for the war and its crimes would remove the central figure this land needs to bring itself back."

Arguing with MacArthur may have been beyond the powers of Amataresu herself, so her descendant many times removed certainly had no chance at all.

"The reason I asked you here is that some diehards in remote locations still refuse to obey your surrender. We would like to request that specialized messages be recorded to urge them to at last lay down their arms and come home."

Hirohito, also called Showa, saw as his chief aide was informed by their translator and responded forcefully on his behalf, if without his direct input.

"The Emperor cannot be held responsible for stupid rogues who are too insensate to accede to reality."

The General sported a confident smile.

"Perhaps this young man can change your minds about that."

The small facility had been hastily erected, in the kind of hurry only MacArthur could demand and have it done almost just by speaking it. Japanese people who were protected from assault by American soldiers by MacArthur's own orders were instead assaulted by the noise of hammers and nails and wood. Some were heard to say that they would rather be punched out, for at least then you got some sleep.

"Our young friend here is the only survivor of a late-hour kamikaze raid. His plane landed intact and is now on its way to a museum in California. He was luckier than his squadmates, not so lucky as his plane."

Awa Urashima was a man destroyed, in large part by his own hubris. Now, he thought, his destruction was complete. In the eyes of his Emperor, he was a living symbol of a nation brought low. Forgetting several levels of protocol, he looked Hirohito in the eye and spoke. He could not, he reasoned, be any more condemned.

"I should have died in your holy name."

Several other levels of protocol met their end when the man for whom these words were intended spoke back without an intermediary.

"There has been enough death, young man. In my name, I charge you with the task of living a life and helping our humbled nation to rebuild. Will you honor my wishes?"

The response left Urashima's lips without hesitation.

"Hai!"

It was only after the party left that he considered that he would now have no choice but to live up to this oath. Heaven might someday forgive his one insult, or at least such had happened in legend. But two such slights? Bitter and depressed-not to mention self-centered-he might be, but he just wasn't that stupid.

"So I will live. Sergeant MacDougal?"

"No, Urashima-I will not conveniently forget to set the safety on my pistol. I told you that already."

"It's not that. Now that I have served my purpose, what is to become of me?"

MacDougal shrugged.

"Well, you're not a prisoner anymore-no one is, except for war criminals. But you're still busted up worse than a man should ever be, even if you do heal like a lizard. So we're working on setting you up at a hospital your people set up for war wounded. So far, they won't take you, and neither will anyone else."

"Because of my disgrace?"

"That's part of it. But folks-by that I mean all folks-are funny. It's like it's not victory or defeat, but war itself they try to forget. Resilient folk out here, I'll give them that. They want to move on, and you are a symbol of something that shouldn't have happened and also something that just didn't work."

Urashima felt a sense of foreboding.

"Then people are telling themselves a story. War happened. And it stinks. It isn't fun, or an adventure, and you don't go to Heaven just for being in it. I wish I had known that. But I was so fixated on making my way to that celestial entrance, I forgot that dreams need a dreamer worthy of them."

MacDougal saw his superior gesturing to him.

"You'll get there. Just four weeks ago, you wouldn't even admit you spoke English, and I was Dog to hear you tell it. Be right back."

Urashima saw MacDougal walk away and then saw him walk back with a second figure in tow.

"Urashima-San? You are in luck. This little lady here is the Chief Nurse at the hospital we picked out for you. She just argued to get you in-with some strings attached. Awa Urashima-"

The wounded man's vision looked two heads below MacDougal.

"-meet Hinata-errr-Ma'am?"

The girl smiled.

"My name is Hinata Urashima-for you, Awa, must agree to be my legal guardian. The hospital wishes me to keep my position, and yet needs to have the permission of my next of kin-which you will give-along with maintenance work, once you are well."

Urashima had gone from cruel jerk to sarcastic whipped fool. His evolution was newborn, and yet it had finally begun. Besides, he needed a place to stay while he healed. He dismissively acknowledged his charge and champion.

"Hello, Little Woman."

Hinata nodded, matching him snark for snark.

"Hello, Big Man."

It was the classic story of the ages. Immortal cursed with agelessness meets Immortal cursed with invulnerability.

Okay, so it's really kinda weird. This is Love Hina, after all.

_**LATE DECEMBER, 2001**_

**THE PRIVATE JOURNAL OF MUTSUMI OTOHIME**

_I've barely kept a proper record since that day. It happened half a world away to just one city, but the feelings are almost just as raw now._

**9/12/01**

Shinobu came home with her friend Amy. The girl was said to resemble her distant cousin, the actress who had played Nellie Oleson on Little House On The Prairie. This was hard to see through her tears.

"Kei-Sempai, may she sleep in my room for a few nights?"

If refusing Shinobu anything (except that one thing) was ever in Keitaro's DNA, it was still not in evidence then.

"Of course, Shinobu. But what happened?"

Mitsu gently guided the girl to Room 201 as Shinobu watched.

"They've confirmed that her mother was on a high-story floor in the South Tower five minutes before the collapse. Her father may have been stuck in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike-or is it Parkway? In any event, nothing of him has been confirmed yet."

Naru, who in about fifteen minutes would call her sister Mei for no good reason, shuddered openly.

"We should tell her landlady she's staying here."

Shinobu shook her head.

"Her landlady works for the same investment firm, and is a cousin to a colleague of her parents. He was heard on the same phone call as Amy's mother. Her landlady has taken the first flight out to learn his fate and work out of the firm's branch office in New Rochelle. Amy-San kept herself together just long enough to arrange for her to stay with her former dance instructor, a Mrs. Petrie, who lives there. Amy-San currently has-"

Shinobu broke down in tears of her own, and ran into the arms of the one she loved best of all.

"Oh, Sempai-she has no one and no place to stay!"

Kei held her and offered comforting words.

"She has you, and she has this place. Would you like to take over my old room, Shin-Chan? It's big enough for two girls, or at least it should be."

Naru saw Mitsu come back down. No one noticed Mutsumi, who seemed to be in a trance, albeit not at all a peaceful one.

"I think that's a great idea-provided you clear your porn stash out first."

Every girl except Naru started pulling nervously on their collars. Kei shrugged.

"I think that won't be a problem. It's already been distributed, so to speak."

**JOURNAL**

_Normally, no comment seems out of place in our lives. But in these days, the world itself seems out of place. My grandmother said that she saw in a vision that a crystal of great evil had been stored in a locker in the Trade Center, yet it had not been the cause of the attack. I asked her what the cause was. She said the cause was the same as ever : fools trying to impress the Heavens by undoing Heaven's work, and likely wondering why they ended up in Hell thereafter._

_My grandmothers are of my blood and my heart. I have a third grandmother-or at least I used to. I could sense great things the day I met Kei and Naru, even as a child. I could sense when they met up again, and when they first decided to make love. Behind it all, sometimes literally, was the vital life-force of Grandma Hina. But I now cannot sense her at all. My own grandmother said that we sense when those we love enter this world, and we sense their absence once they are gone from it. _

_She said something else, but my mind won't permit me to remember it. These days have not been conducive to this._

**9/26/01 **

Mitsu kissed a man who would never want her in that way, but who had been a good friend.

"Keep yourself-you know."

"I always do, Mitsu. Most of my unit knows, anyway, but they need a sharpshooter. Especially now. I want UBL's head to become a fine mist in my scope."

The household saluted the departing US Marine, bound for a mountainous land that historically had proven impossible to occupy or hold for any real length of time. Su looked at Mitsu, who was fighting back tears.

"What is it that his unit knows anyway, Mitsu?"

Su's query was answered by Motoko.

"Joseph is gay, Kaolla Su. If too many of the wrong people in his command circle learn this, he could be forcibly discharged."

The Molmolian Princess made a comment that, in other times, would have produced groans and shakes of the head.

"The Marines don't like it when you're happy?"

These were not other times, so Motoko cut her off.

"Yeah-that too."

Naru and Kei returned from the market, clothes torn and looking bloody-and in this case, both looked like another Naru of old had escaped Su's time machine and attacked them. A look from Kei told Shin to attend to Naru first. Mutsumi found she almost could not breathe. If either one of these people were to say the word, she would gladly spend her life with them. In fact, if both of them together asked the same thing, the result would also be the same. Seeing them like this, strange healing or no, was not something she cared for.

"Sempais-you were out getting curry and some hummus."

Naru wiped her bloody mouth and held her jaw.

"A group of thugs attacked Mister Harjiv. Asked him if he had plans to crash planes into Tokyo."

Motoko asked a loaded question less out of prejudice against one group than out of hope for another.

"Americans did this?"

This hope would be dashed. Naru winced from pain and grief.

"No-they were our own-God help us."

Mitsu shook her head.

"Mister Harjiv-he's Indian and a Buddhist."

Kei looked up at her with an eye partially shut.

"He was. Su?"

"Yes, Onii-Chan?"

"I am Onii-Chan and Manager and Landlord, right?"

"Of course."

"And you love me, right?"

She held him tighter than he liked, but the pain from keeping the mob from defiling their victim's body was greater still.

"Stupid Onii-Chan. I warred on my sisters to try and marry you."

He sat her down and held her hand.

"Then by all that, you must swear to not leave the Hinata-Sou's grounds for any reason until the New Year comes, unless it's to go directly to Molmol. Do you swear?"

"No shopping?"

"Su-"

"No arcade-no fried dough treats with powdered sugar?"

"Su-will you swear it?"

His eyes were glaring at an intensity that, three years gone, had been reserved for those once united in achieving his banishment.

"I-I swear it Onii-Chan! But why?"

He now held her in a breath-taking embrace.

"Because Onii-Chan loves you and would never forgive himself if these dark days brought you to harm."

"Th-Thank you, Onii-Chan. But I'll go crazy locked up here."

A common thought ran through the room.

_You and everyone else here._

"Well, I'll need you to teach me all you know about physics-Onii-Chan needs tutoring, okay?"

Su smiled in nearly ecstatic joy at the mere thought of being sensei to her beloved Onii-Chan. Almost everyone else considered the level of physics the genius girl transacted in, and wondered what the hell Kei was thinking.

**JOURNAL**

_I always loved the parable about the three blind sages trying to describe the elephant, each only knowing it from what part they touched. But now we have an elephant in our house no one will touch. It is the subject of Grandma. Kei issued what I can only call an order that we not speak of it, and Auntie backed him up. Those two move with a searing unity when it suits them. I guess it maybe comes from being the only two of their kind. Normally, I'd make a joke about how that also leads to concern about their feelings for one another, but they are both so far shut down, I think we could find them in the onsen together and believe nothing happened._

_It's not healthy for Kei, and it's not healthy for the baby Haruka is carrying. I felt it starved for affection, till I guided it to touch all our hearts, and know that love awaits it on its arrival-on her arrival. The little heart already wants to know all about her Uncle Kei. How odd that, just as Joseph's more homophobic comrades have more in common with him than the people they all protect, this unborn girl has more in common with her uncle than she does with Seta, her father. But ties are forged in odd ways, and the red string has several shades._

_And still I can neither recall what my grandmother told me, nor am I clear-headed enough to simply ask her._

**10/31/01 **

The attaché from the American embassy quickly got to the point of his visit.

"First of all, let me thank you for your patience. Sorting through that Hell has taxed our ability to keep people informed like nothing we in this generation have known. We weren't delaying, or brushing you off. It's just that, until now, we had nothing to give you."

Haruka's stare was icy cold, but it was a cold felt by everyone-except Keitaro, generating arctic blasts of his own.

"What do you have now?"

The official pulled out some papers.

"The commuter plane registered to Urashima Hinata crashed into the New Jersey Palisades the morning of September 11th of this year. That we can tell, it was caught in the backwash of one of the hijacked jetliners that were used by Al Qaeda to destroy the Twin Towers. At this point, no remains identifiable as Mrs. Urashima have been found anywhere in, near or around the wreckage."

Keitaro seemed not to notice his fiancée's hand clenched over his. His voice was scarily close to a monotone.

"What remains have you found?"

Naru released his hand and realized that her man had caught an inference she had plainly missed. His grades, logically expected to suffer, had instead gone dramatically up. Their intimacy had been another story.

"Those remains, while definitely not those of your mother-"

Haruka cut him off.

"Grandmother. While her next of kin, I am her adopted daughter. Keitaro and I are both her grandchildren by blood."

Her grammar seemed stilted and archaic. This was not the woman who gladly squicked everyone present by openly flirting with her cousin and nephew. Seta and Sarah sat well away from her, feeling almost like there had been no marriage and no new family. The embassy man nodded.

"Thank you. That does clear a few things up. It seems that until recently, she was traveling in the company of another granddaughter, a Kanako Konno-Urashima."

Keitaro answered, again sounding less and less like a man who had ever known either nerves or confidence.

"My sister has recently reunited with her birth-mother. We have been unable to contact her."

This inference, Naru did catch.

"Wait-Kanako's birth-name was Konno? Mitsu?"

Mitsune shrugged.

"The Konnos adopted me-sort of. Kanako and I are half-sisters."

"Which you were going to tell us when?"

"Ummm-my business, Naru?"

"My future sister-in-law and best friend are half-sibs and its none of my business?"

"Give the lady a cigar-I mean the tobacco kind."

"You could sure use the other kind, huh? Or have you actually crossed that line yet?"

Mitsu's face twisted in rage.

"You said you wouldn't tell-"

Sarah nodded.

"She ratted out my birthmark, too-the dirty rat."

Shinobu looked at Mitsu.

"How dare you pose as this experienced mentor when you haven't gotten any more than I have?"

"Shinobu, not now!"

This time it was the embassy official who shouted.

"Yes, NOT NOW! Do you think you're the only people in this world, or even in Japan, or even this region or prefecture, to suffer a loss because of those lunatics? I have five other homes to get to this afternoon, including people whose daughter had run away and was living homeless and mentally ill in the Trade Center locker center. But there is an anomaly in this, and it needs to be addressed. The body found in that plane's wreckage we are not at liberty to identify. It was not the lady you are all so obviously grieving, that much I can say. But I need to ask a few questions."

The fractious family had just had a cultural button pushed. They had disgraced themselves in front of a stranger, a guest in their home who had come to aid them in their time of grief. There were no more outbursts.

"Thank you. Now, first, and I mean to cast no aspersions, because this one we are asking of literally everyone these events have hit. First-is there any possibility Mrs. Urashima had sympathy with the methods and goals of Al Qaeda and The Taliban?"

Haruka shook her head.

"None. My mother cried when the Taliban destroyed the giant Buddha statues a while ago. As a rule, she did not like fanatics of any stripe, and felt that much fundamentalist thought ends up in that direction by default."

The official shrugged.

"And yet she married one."

Naru looked at the man.

"What did you just say?"

Kei and Haruka looked at her, a woman they both loved now looked past and through.

"Our grandfather, Awa Urashima, was a failed Kamikaze candidate."

"We learned this almost two weeks ago."

Which, Naru quickly realized, was about the time the two shut down. She shook her head.

"Sir, some Japanese still glorify those sad young men. Most don't anymore. They weren't heroes. They were victims of a stupid policy that gained no ground except in the cemetery. Those words are not mine, either. They are-"

Naru choked.

"They were-Grandma's. She never liked fanatics. She always said they were so-"

Mitsu nodded.

"Unreliable. That was a very bad thing in Grandma's eyes. Being unreliable. Trust me on that."

**JOURNAL**

_The gentleman left us, the identity of the dead one on Grandma's plane still a mystery, but at least her name had been cleared._

_I was so scared at what came next. We could not survive another war. Very soon, the bombs would be dropping on Afghanistan. But Naru had already dropped one here._

**11/01/01**

With Mutsumi standing behind them, Naru and Shinobu stood sheepishly before the crisp, businesslike Mitsu Konno.

"Well?"

Shinobu shook her head.

"Go ahead and slap me. I can't even account for my mouth anym-OWWWW!"

Mitsu shrugged.

"Okay, you're forgiven. You, Mrs. Urashima?"

Naru couldn't meet her gaze.

"Don't call me that. Because he never will."

Finally, she met Mitsune's eyes with her own.

"He's left me, Mitsu! We're in the same bed, but I can't feel him. Forget sex, I can't feel anything of the jerk I fell for. He's gone, and it's making me insane, because his body is still here and moving around-but not for me..."

The four women walked into Mitsu's room, and she held Naru.

"I guess it's better that everyone knows. I've ditched old Kitsune and her life of lies, so why not ditch the final one?"

Naru shook her head.

"No! I loved Kitsune. We all did. You can't just put her aside."

"I'm Ryobo now, Naru-chan. Kitsune is another person, and she is not here. As far as I'm concerned, she's sleeping it all off somewhere, and she can sleep. I have promises to keep."

Shin sniffed.

"Sempai Kei is gone, Kitsune's gone, I can barely recognize myself-what happened to the world we knew?"

Mutsumi chimed in.

"I swear that I could feel the wheel of life turn our way."

Before Mitsu could again respond with her newfound maturity, Motoko walked in, her robes open and her body quite exposed.

"Urashima beat me. It wasn't even hard for him. My every movement, no matter how well planned and struck, turned out to be part of his extended plan to reach the tie on my robes. I even pulled away at the last second, but his finger was already snagged-and-oh well."

Motoko moved to leave, and Naru shrugged.

"You're the one who stopped wearing a body wrap, and now you're going to pound him for seeing what you offered up?"

"Narusegawa-he's seen me naked. He's seen all of us naked. I think he knows our private parts better than his own, possibly. Don't you get it? I still want to marry the man, so his seeing my body is not a concern, except for how it might upset you. Naked I can handle."

Motoko turned back, teeth gritted.

"But that delicious novice runt beat me. So I go not to pound him, but to practice."

Naru grabbed at her head.

"Straight Top-Ranks in school, and now he's beating Motoko and not falling apart to see her body. How is he doing all this? And how do we get our sweet struggling nerve-wracked boy back? How do I get him back?"

As they all left Mitsu's room, Mutsumi pulled her oldest friend aside.

"I might know a way. If you're willing to do..."

"Anything! I'll do anything!"

Mutsumi shook her head.

"Well, we'll put that to the test, won't we?"

"So test me."

Mutsumi held Naru's head-and kissed her full on the lips.

"I have always loved the both of you. Our common love of each other and him can bring him out, I'm sure of it."

Naru gave a ringing and enthusiastic endorsement of this wild scheme.

Which is to say, she fainted.

**JOURNAL**

_I really am completely in love with the both of them, but even in that, it's complicated. I love each of them, and I love both of them together. I had thoughts of being with either of them as they figured things out, but I had forgotten the intensity of their relationship. There's a lot of room in their hearts, bless them, but not so much in their bedroom. I wouldn't even call this a case of trying to talk a conservative couple into a so-called 'threesome'._

_It's instead a case of two people who have been one for a very long time trying to let anyone else in. Am I using this crisis to gain from them what they were unwilling to give normally?_

_I don't much care for the answer. If I am some sort of airhead, it still wouldn't be hard to figure out. But my dream deserves to come true-and if I can rescue their love in the process, I can live with impure motives._

_I am at spiritual balance, and I am surrounded by the ones I love best of all, and I feel the light in all things._

_But at the thought of sharing their bed, I am a teen again, and I am scared I'll screw it up._

**12/01/2001**

The reaction promised by the American President while at the site already called Ground Zero was in full force, and a corrupt government in Afghanistan was soon to fall-to be replaced by what, is hard to say, and will not be covered here. Yet that war would travel to the small hotel, now a girls' dorm, so it should be noted.

After a month of hellish indecision, Naru Narusegawa invited a friend to become much more, both to herself and to her man. That door closed on three people who had played together before, and now would again.

A girl smart enough to know better invited a nervous young man to her room, with both promising things wouldn't go too far. They wouldn't, but not because the two were aiming to be careful.

A woman who now prided herself on industrious and control read and read and read a short terse telegram, trying to parse it for any instance of code-talking. Having found none, she felt her rage build until it threatened to shatter her.

A man who was the brother of the woman playing with her two friends found that his warrior girlfriend outclassed him in every way there was to be outclassed. Her awkward statement about her former crush being able to best her helped things not at all.

A girl who had built one of creation's wonders felt cold and alone. This was worse than the last time, she told herself, and that last time had not been so long ago. Grieving and wishing a distraction, she arranged a journey over the phone that would be one of the more memorable ones the group ever took-and yes, they would be united again by that point.

But that point was not yet, and the separate threads of a time of hurt were about to converge.

Not looking at all satisfied, Mutsumi departed Naru's room, only to see Mitsune waiting for her.

"Got in through the back door, huh?"

"Not-not now, Mitsune."

"You know, most of us decided to respect Kei and Naru's choice, not try to get in-between them anymore. You? You actually got in-between them-literally. Was she as good as him? How is it, always having a fallback sex when one doesn't work out? Do people like you carry the whole phone book with you, just to save time?"

The woman who usually defined gentleness pointed at her friend.

"Back off. I don't have time for this."

Mitsune regarded her.

"Their scents-both individually, and as a couple-they're all over you-Mutsu, how could you?"

"Even if I had to explain myself to you, Mitsu-I still wouldn't. Now please let me-"

Their argument was cut off by another spilling out of Shinobu's room.

"When were you going to let me know about this?"

"If I had known you were this intrusive, I would never have..."

Mitsu snapped her fingers.

"Shinobu! What is Arlo-San doing in your room? I promised your father he would never be in there."

Shinobu looked sheepish, but not cowed.

"I wanted to be with him. We weren't going that far. Besides, with all of you lately, I have no one to talk to."

"Oh, so you were only talking in there?"

"Mitsu, you're over blowing this-errr-yeah. Besides, I don't date boys who wear more makeup than me!"

"That is low!"

Arlo pointed at his girlfriend.

"I told you-I had some scratches from the kitchen, and vainly tried to cover them up. That's all."

Shinobu wiped away some makeup on his left cheek, revealing a large but healing gash.

"That-is not from working in the kitchen. Are you getting into gang-fights at school?"

"You are not my mother, Shinobu."

Mitsu grabbed his face and studied the scars.

"But she would have seen these by now, wouldn't she? Alice-San's not dumb."

"Let go!"

Mitsu shook her head.

"You couldn't get away with makeup in a sweaty kitchen. Arlo-San, Auntie told me that Alice-San sometimes has quite a temper. Particularly when the subject of your biological father comes up."

Arlo closed his eyes and was silent, till his head bowed down.

"I should go. Mitsu-Ryobo-San, I apologize for breaking your rules-"

Shinobu stopped him.

"NO! Is Alice-San the one hurting you? Your own mother?"

He did not open his eyes.

"Shin-Chan, what do you want me to say? Or do?"

"Man up and tell her to stop!"

He pushed past all of them and was on the stairs.

"I've discovered you ladies are really big on two things : Telling us guys to man up and then crying foul if we keep you from acting like Neanderthals. Kei-Sempai may have discovered some secret to dealing with all this-but I don't know it. Goodbye, Shin-chan-I wasn't trying to hurt you. But I won't see my mother led off because my face resembles that of the man who hurt her worst of all."

"Don't you walk away, you-"

Mitsu stepped in front of her.

"Don't you dare think about doing anything but going back to your room!"

"You're not my mother, Mitsu-then again, you're not anybody's mother, are you?"

"You've walked that line once too often, Missy, and now-"

But if anyone imagined the night would contain only two running arguments, they were to be sadly mistaken.

"You said you were going to keep that low-level and friendly!"

"At my level, that was both!"

"Coulda fooled me, Lady-you did fool my sore arm."

"I told you that you don't have to compete at Urashima's level."

Koichi was down the stairs before he could be blocked.

"Not a mistake I'll make again. I mean, dude has his own all-ages harem. What's the point in competing with that?"

But if some of the fuel for the fire was gone and away, there were still reserves, some of which emerged from her bedroom.

"What the hell are you doing out here? I need to sleep."

Naru glared at the others, but not one of them shrank from her gaze. Mitsu took point.

"So now that you've ridden both tracks, Naru, how is switching off?"

Naru stopped and stared at her.

"Was that about trains or sex?"

"So I like euphemisms-just like you like being adventurous."

Mutsumi still felt badly out of sorts.

"Just so long as it isn't with you, Mitsune. In the bedroom, you need someone you can rely on."

Mutsumi was already about to apologize when a growl and then a roar erupted from Mitsu's throat. Her eyes pulled back, and her face seemed to distend, and then after that her body, as it also grew fur all over it. The other girls stared dumbly as yesterday's trickster and today's model for industrious sobriety became tonight's wolf. It growled at all of them, stopping in particular on Shinobu, who had upset her earlier. The younger girl burst into tears.

"Mitsu, nothing happened!"

The wolf who had been Mitsune turned and looked at Naru and Mutsumi.

"Mitsu, we both tried, but Kei lay there like a lump till we gave up. Our big adventure was a big blow-out. My man-our man still isn't around yet."

Mutsumi nodded.

"My dream of being with them hit the shores of reality."

The wolf found someone had jumped on it-not for pummeling, but for hugging.

"Mitsu, I'm sorry-but I've lost Kei, and maybe Arlo tonight too-please don't go away."

The sound of Shinobu's tears caused a woman to re-emerge from within a wolf, and a man to emerge from more than just his room.

"Don't cry, kid-it's been rough-and I still don't have the kind of self-control I'd like."

"Did I hear Shinobu crying out here-and why do I feel so weird?"

Every woman present ran and hugged Keitaro, who still looked confused.

"Ummm-was I off somewhere? I feel like I've been away."

Naru seized and kissed him.

"Kei, what happened?"

He shook his head.

"I dunno. I remember somebody saying how Granpa was a kamikaze, and Auntie crying-she never cries, wow-and how we both felt like he was no better than the maniacs back on September 11th-but there was more-why can't I remember?"

Mutsumi walked up and hugged him.

"It was a lot to deal with-on top of everything else. You and Auntie just kind of zoned out and stayed there."

Shinobu embraced him next.

"As long as you're back."

Kei shook his head.

"But I feel like I went away for a reason-what was it?"

Su came bounding up the stairs.

"Onii-Chan, it's time for your physics lessons!"

Kei winced.

"Sorry, Su-we'll start those in a few days."

"Days? You've been taking the lessons for more than a few weeks, now. You even have this file of work saved up."

She handed him a CD-Rom. Kei stared at it in utter confusion.

"Naru? Everyone? I'm so sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was make this time any more confusing or hurtful."

Naru looked at him.

"You want forgiveness? Get back in there."

The restored couple moved to make up for lost time. Shinobu threw on her jacket.

"I have to talk to Arlo. I can't let it end like this."

Motoko sighed.

"Koichi has the overnight. But I too will not let this argument stand for long."

That left Mutsumi and Mitsune.

"For a sweet gentle airhead, you sure know how to throw a verbal right cross."

Mutsumi nodded.

"Thanks-Mitsu-"

"Not now, Mutsu-kay?"

"Yes, but-"

Mitsune waved her hand in a cutting motion in front of her.

"No. We're all sorry, we're all tired, and things just got bad. Alright?"

"Not alright. There's two things you're not thinking through."

Mitsu sighed.

"Being which?"

Mutsumi listed these.

"One-everyone saw you change into a wolf. They're going to learn your secret."

"Well, I don't have many secrets left anymore, anyway. What's two?"

Mutsumi moved them both downstairs.

"Two-your real Mom's a Kitsune spirit, right?"

"Right."

"Then-if you're a real kitsune-why did you change into a wolf?"

A good question to which the foxy lady had no answer at all.

**JOURNAL**

_Shinobu agreed to stay out of Arlo's relationship with his mother-unless she really hurt him, and then all bets are off. Motoko and Koichi have elected to replace combat practice with miniature golf. Mitsu has so far dodged all questions concerning her transformation. Kei still can't figure out what he did with Su's lessons, and Naru still can't get enough of him._

_I wish I could have been with them. It's still my dream. But as Shin-Chan and Arlo make Christmas Eve dinner, now all I dream of is either peace-or the lovably fun chaos that our lives once knew._

_Oh, Kami, as the New Year approaches, show us signs that the warm chaos of the Hinata-Sou will once again replace the actions of fanatics and losers in shaping our lives._

_I need that to happen. We all do._

_**JANUARY 2ND, 2002**_

The prayers of Mutsumi Otohime would be answered, but Kami takes his own path in these things.

**1**

Naru saw the letter from the Japanese government.

"Is that it, then?"

Kei closed his eyes.

"Yeah. Auntie's the next of kin, so she'll have to decide. But as of right now, the government won't stop us if we want to declare Grandma-"

He tore the letter up.

"I'm not ready to say it. I can't find my sister, and my parents have accepted this too easily. But I can't let this be real for right now-I can't let this stand-NARU!"

She jumped, and he grabbed the CD-ROM, inserting it into her laptop computer.

"Oh, My God. It's all here."

Naru looked at the readout, and her eyes went wide when she saw the real reason her man went away the way he did.

"Can this work?"

Kei had no answer.

**2**

Across town, Shinobu waited in a clinic for test results.

No, not *****_**those***_ test results.

"Thanks for waiting, Shin-chan."

She glared up at him.

"If your cheek didn't have a gash already, I'd slap you."

"Shin, she's a good person."

Shinobu caressed his cheek near the wound.

"Yes, she is. But she has a very poor habit I will no longer tolerate."

**3**

As a tired man emerged from keeping Tokyo's buildings with heat and ventilation on a consistent basis, he was met by a woman he had come to like a great deal.

"Hey, Lady. I'm a little too tired to spar, ya know?"

"Koichi? I have news. Despite my best efforts at being careful-"

"No-Motoko, don't say it!"

She nodded.

"Despite all my and our vast precautions-"

She began to tear up.

"My sister found out about us and wants to meet you."

They resigned themselves to an inescapable fate.

**4**

Back at the Hinata-Sou, Mutsumi felt something shift. Something welcome.

"Of course!"

As Kei, Naru, Motoko, Shinobu and guests came in, three oddities emerged that would define part of a new year.

"Onii-Chan? My time machine is acting funny. Maybe I better finally take it apart."

Naru stopped her.

"Su? It's all right. We'll do that in a few months. We think it's perfectly safe. Right, Kei?"

"That's right-our Su invented it, so how could it be bad?"

She was held and hugged inbetween them, and all seemed right.

That is to say, it seemed right.

**5**

Naru saw Haruka walk in.

"Auntie? Where's Seta?"

Haruka just chuckled.

"Still sporting that crush, eh kid? Nah, haven't heard from him lately. I think he might have taken in Tara MacDougal's daughter. Have to check with him. Hey, shouldn't you be in cram school?"

"Ummm-no. I'm in Todai. So's Kei and Mutsumi. Motoko's in cram school."

She laughed again.

"Yeah, right. You two still have to pass your entrance exams, remember? But I'll lay odds 1999 is your year. So-"

Haruka Seta said words that left them all fearful for her.

"Anybody get a call from Grandma?"

**6**

Upstairs, Mitsu heard a noise from her old room.

"Hey! Who's in there? Arlo-that better not be you! Ryobo coming through, so get dressed quick!"

Pushing her way in, Mitsu saw walls lined with beer cans and bottles, and a room that looked like it had never ever been cleaned. Under the futon mattress was a figure. She pulled it away to reveal the last person she expected to see.

"You?"

She was hung over, barely dressed, and laughing at the seriously serious House Mother.

"Yeah, me. Who'd ya expect? Face front, Anal Retentive Annie-"

Mitsune felt like a mirror had come to life-an old mirror.

"-'Cause Kitsune is back in town!"

**7**

Mutsumi suddenly remembered all of what her grandmother had said.

_*If we remain aware, and put past the distractions of a modern world, we sense when those we love enter this world, we sense when they leave it, and we sense their absence once they are gone from it.*_

And she smiled a very broad, very joyous smile. For her prayers on several levels had been answered in a good way.

_*Hinata Urashima had a very potent lifeforce. I can feel its absence from the world-but I never felt her leave it !*_

It was only hope, but she decided she would gladly take it.

_**SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001**_

Fourteen seconds remained until impact. Hinata Urashima felt the world grow odd around her. One second before, she thought she felt and heard her beloved Awa. Now, though, she looked about her, ignoring the mortal peril ahead.

"Is someone watching me?"

Her time had passed, and it had not yet come.


	6. Chapter Five Only Human

**Chapter Five - Only Human**

_**FEBRUARY 12th, 1946**_

As occupations went, this one wasn't so horrid in the eyes of many Japanese. The American soldiers in their land were as much tourists and consumers as they were conquerors. Granted, there were the girls who were too willing to give themselves to the Yanks, and then those who were too willing to sell or be rented, so to speak, but that had always been, and it happened, to hear it told, even back in the US, even in prosperous times. Not all was sweetness and light, by any stretch. If one wished to find either a hateful burningly resentful Japanese or a crude rude gloating American, then one never had to look all that far. But the people who were just people trying to live their lives tended to out over such miscreants, and soon it looked like the Americans might as well have come in as allies to drive out another attacker than in the way they did. It was still the aftermath of a war, and some Americans were exactly as bad as they had been told, if not worse. But since on average, these monsters were few, the injustice they engendered, while a stain, was not enough to fuel active resistance by a country rebuilding itself. Of course, there were those who said, and who would say more loudly later on, that Japan's own thugs had walked away cleanly. At this point, the desire on both sides was to begin to move on.

This war amnesia was not always shared by the rest of the world, and especially not in Asia, which would, eight years hence, take advantage of a disaster facing Japan, as the echo of the bombs that ended the war came back ashore in a hideous and unforgettable form lifted from primal and ancient nightmares.

Awa Urashima would see those days in December of 1954 and wish badly that he had not, but in early 1946 he was a man newly recovered from wounds that should not have left him with a recognizable corpse, let alone alive and mobile within months.

"Awa, the blankets are not washed properly-don't make us surround you again-we wear sharp heels for grinding into your little member!"

"Awa, the sinks are backed up-get your lazy ass in there and fix them, if you don't want it kicked straight into Hell."

"Awa, you fool! The water heater's temperature is inadequate for the hot water to sterilize eating utensils and dishes-do you have any idea how close you are to the street?"

Awa-that was all. No honorific, nor his family name. Just ultimate contempt. Nor did its effects stop there. The failure the nation wished to forget was one it would not let Awa Urashima move past.

Then there was the girl Hinata. Ironically, the others who bullied and ordered him around were of roughly equal rank to him; Only Hinata was kind, and she outranked everyone but the Administrator himself, now retired from the military.

"Urashima! Where is my aspirin?"

But Hinata was not kind today.

"You took it all down. Anymore, and you risk making your blood too thin."

She grabbed him, hurled him against the stone wall, and then hit him successively with both his broom and his mop. He knew something was wrong when he was able to grab both from her ten seconds later.

"All right, what's wrong with you? Usually, when you get going, those things are like chopper blades."

The diminutive girl stood, but not with any steadiness.

"Go to hell, you idiot. Man can't even fly a plane into a hundred tons of steel , and he wants to tell me about my blood and skills?"

A moment later, she was a girl who couldn't fly herself into the corridor, and a man who had taken her charity as well as her abuse for months caught her as she fell.

"I am an idiot. I should have taken prison or the streets, than put up with all of you. Now how many aspirin have you already taken today?"

For once, the girl that surprised everyone and had layered secrets was just a girl, helpless and sick.

"Not sure. Wanted to avoid-harder stuff."

He shook his head.

"You handle pain the way I do, and you whine less about it. The fact that you're even thinking about the hard stuff tells me everything. You're going home."

A shrill voice met his ears as he placed Hinata on his back.

"Awa! The bedpans need to be emptied."

"Then empty them. She's my charge, she's sick, and we're going home."

The wannabe-head nurse folded her arms.

"You know what they say about a kick down there, Awa?"

With all the restrained anger of a failed entry into Heaven backing him up, Awa kicked the woman and her five friends exactly where he had been warned of. They went down, heaving.

"Yes, I do. They say that, if you kick really really hard-even a woman can feel that special pain. Now do your jobs while she's gone. If she has to kick your asses, then I will follow up for her. Hai?"

"H-Hai."

"Hai-what?"

His grandson would have to find other methods to achieve this, but Awa's victory was just as clear.

"Hai-Urashima-San."

As they left, Hinata managed a laugh.

"You hit girls now?"

He shrugged.

"How much more of a disgrace can I be?"

As they neared their flat, she tried to shake off of him.

"Awa-San-you have done your duty. What's happening now-is part of how my life ends. It could get ugly. I release you, and urge you to get back to work."

He placed her on the futon, undressed her to the extent she needed to be, then covered Hinata up.

"You think, after months of being bossed around, I will pass up this opportunity to tell you what to do?"

She looked up, and suddenly the tiny comet seemed not so icy.

"Was I that harsh?"

"Ask the back of my head. Or my nose, shoved into bedpans about a hundred times. Ask all the maintenance and nursing staff you didn't treat that way."

She shook her head.

"That was because I knew you would do it, that it would get done. I've hit and pushed the others. They still treat those wounded men like they were disgraces. Only you take their care seriously."

He snorted.

"Then you are a stupid little girl. For even with my debts and arrest should I try to flee them, I was several times on the verge of bolting. Especially when you took a week off to go sightseeing with MacDougal-San!"

It was there, even he would be forced to admit it. Jealousy. Whatever its real underlying base, Awa wanted attention that his charge and employer would not give him.

"I wasn't sightseeing. I was preparing for this illness."

He placed a hot towel on her head as she spoke.

"That makes no sense at all."

She sighed, and resigned herself.

"You are cursed?"

"I should think that your nurses shoving me down stairs and punching me through windows without killing me would prove that."

"Then you may hear my story without consequence. Awa, do you know what happens to me a little over one year from today, should I live?"

"You will give me over to American nurses to be their punching bag?"

"DO NOT MAKE FUN!"

He looked scared, not of her, but rather for her, and so pushed her back down.

"I-apologize. No-you must tell me what will happen to you then. For you have told me nothing about yourself."

His words seemed to draw her gaze. The bitter broken man who resented his life and living had come to care about the life and living of another.

She nodded, a hint of a smile shining through the pain.

"I will. Sometime in early 1947-I no longer know exactly when-I will turn one hundred years old."

The shock on his face was worth a lot of years alone. Almost.

"Yes-your Lolita is actually a whole bakery's worth of Christmas Cakes, eh?"

"How can this be?"

She coughed, took more water and a little soup, then began.

"I was born as the power seized by the Shoguns flowed back to its natural place in the Chrysanthemum Throne-"

"Hina-San-power belongs to the people. That is the new way."

"Yet even MacArthur insisted this land have an Emperor. Now, do not interrupt me. But as the Emperor rose again as a power, a new power also rising made its presence known in Japan. That power's flag now flies over ours, by the way. Admiral Perry may have been crude and overly blunt, but he knew he was dealing with a proud and stubborn people, so when his contacts were refused, the bombardments began. Ultimately, he prevailed, and Japan met its first Americans. Some were the ultimate tourist trash-but others were in awe, and showed it. Perhaps being from so young a land themselves, they liked being in somewhere with more roots and history. One sailor struck up a friendship with a girl who reminded him of his little sister back home. I am that girl. That sailor's name was Sam MacDougal."

Despite his promise, Awa interrupted.

"He is cursed as well?"

"No. Our friend is descended of that man's sister, who married a cousin of hers later on. My father had not even wanted the Emperor restored, let alone see this incursion of 'foreign devils'. Several times, he forbid me to see Sam-Chan. Understand, he never tried anything-though I might not have stopped him if he had. He saw and treated me exactly as I have said. One night, not long before he was to ship out, I waited for him to say one of our last goodbyes. My father appeared instead, saying that I was a stupid girl, and a stupid girl I would always be. He said my sailor wasn't coming, and that he would never come again. I hadn't known that my father and some of his friends had made certain of this, and paid other Americans to say he had fallen off a dock somewhere while drunk. I vowed that he would return, and kept on vowing till he slapped a small scroll on my head-saying that I would always be a little girl, unless my vow were proven true. I was then told to leave my home, and seek family in other parts of Japan."

Awa knew the sort of man Hinata's father had been, as the saying goes, all too well.

"To curse a little girl so casually is cruel."

She saw something in him, then, but frowned as though a condition in a deal had been met past that agreement's expiration.

"He said that he could not prevent the world from changing, but that I would remain the same. The family members I found never allowed me to stay for very long. I took to running with the kitsune spirits. They are mercurial, exasperating creatures, but their affections are not so easily thrown off, once you have them."

Awa remembered something.

"You took MacDougal-San to your father's grave, didn't you? To break the curse? Well, did it?"

Hinata smiled.

"I began to feel myself die as I spoke prayers over that grave. I wish that I remembered what he looked like. That is my illness, Urashima-San. That last illness of all, as the years catch up with me at last-and you made it possible for me to reach my rest."

Her hand gently cupped his cheek, and then she closed her eyes.

The next morning, the barely teened girl was gone, and in her place was a college-age woman.

"Why-why am I alive?"

In the night, Awa had crawled atop her to sleep, almost smothering her.

"YOU-IDIOT!"

She jump-kicked him in the head, sending him flying.

"Uhhhh-what'd I do?"

She pointed at him with absolute fury in her eyes.

"It was my time, you fool! Your being atop me stopped Death from claiming me when it had the chance! Your curse is now mine too! Your bad luck has rubbed off on me, and kept me back from my dream! Have you nothing to say for yourself?"

Awa looked nervous.

"Maybe-maybe you don't get to pick when you die? I know I didn't."

She punched him with abandon, straight in the face.

"You are the lowest sort of being-I HATE YOU!"

Awa Urashima ached, and he bled, and even his healing was painful. Yet every single time he thought of his role in thwarting Hina's death-he smiled broadly.

"An Urashima is not so easily gotten rid of, little woman."

Hearts had touched, but if this tender sound were drowned out by thunder, one would tend to understand.

By the way, Hina still demanded chocolates the next day, which was Valentine's Day. She did not allow her statement of contempt and hate to relieve him of his obligation in this regard. Awa learned this-after the fact.

_**FEBRUARY 1ST, 2002**_

**THE PRIVATE JOURNAL OF MITSUNE 'MITSU' KONNO **

_I was honestly trying to turn over a new leaf. I was trying to show Kei that I could have been a real choice, and show all the others, including Haruka, that I could make it and then some. I had no choice, in some respects. They were going to throw me out over a mountain of debts and some 'Yes you can go too far' stunts I'd pulled._

_I succeeded. Everyone was stunned and impressed by the new me, and I turned that energy towards replacing bar stools instead of wearing them out. To putting in tinted glass window panes to cool us in the summer instead of emptying tinted bottles. To seeing if this place could make money instead of me making debt._

_Times were good. Molmol was behind us, Todai ahead of us. Shinobu of all people had snagged a decent guy and taken her turn in the Big-Stupid barrel we've all worn. Kei and Naru continue to make the local rabbits complain about the noise from their bedroom. Motoko found a guy she liked well enough to make her sister summon them for inspection. Kaolla Su is making stumbling progress towards less explosions-or maybe more manageable explosions. Mutsumi and I are becoming like me and Naru used to be-if I haven't pissed that away with some choice remarks. Me? I'm the respected house mother, the Ryobo chosen by the departing Ryobo._

_How events on the other side of the world managed to smack us upside the head, I have no idea. _

_Grandma is dead, and she's not the only one._

As Mitsu lead her badly drunken other self upstairs to sleep it off-again-Mutsumi read the telegram, now two months old, a demand made as part of their final reconciliation.

"Oh-Mitsu. No wonder you were so upset."

Closing the door to her old room and old life for now, she nodded.

"He was a good guy. He had someone waiting for him back home, but he's the insanely jealous type, and hearing from a woman might set him off in a time of grieving."

As allied forces in Afghanistan approached Tora Bora, a counter-attack reminded everyone that this war would never be a cakewalk. Among those more harshly reminded had been a US Marine named Joseph, once stationed in Japan and dear friend to a woman named Mitsune Konno.

"He seemed genuinely at peace with himself, despite any problems his service had with his private life."

"Yeah. Someday, the Yanks better put the brakes on that little piece of wisdom. He would tell me, he was a Marine at heart, and Marines may seek cover, but they do not like to hide."

Mutsumi was touched, but also still touchy.

"And at least they don't walk down the street with the entire phone book as their date menu."

Mitsu tried to smooth over her dumbest action to date since taking what she saw as the responsible path.

"Look, first off, that wasn't even my crack-I got it from one of Joseph's George Carlin CD's. Second, isn't it obvious that I was a bit to a lot jealous?"

Mutsumi shook her head.

"Jealous of me?"

Mitsu shook her head.

"You were in there with the two of them. I wasn't. You were doing the brave and the bold team-up, and all I could do was think of going to my room and flying solo. I mean, I've thought about things like that-I love them both too. But you took your love and you tried like hell to make it happen."

Mutsumi for her part did not seem any less offended.

"So-acting out my feelings for both Kei and Naru doesn't make me a freak, it makes me a thrill seeker?"

"Hey! I didn't say it in a disparaging way!"

"Didn't you? What if I said that Kei was the only man I've ever had these feelings for? Or what if I said that Naru was the only woman? What if I said that it was only that combination that could ever make me want to join an existing couple in what can be an emotionally dangerous if not explosive mix?"

Mitsu, impossibly, felt smaller than before.

"I-don't know."

Mutsumi smiled.

"So don't guess, if you don't know. My love for those two goes back to a time when my heart was only forming. Don't assume that you can gauge from it anything else about me. As for flying solo-you don't have to, you know."

The smile grew slightly wider, and threw Mitsu off.

"I-don't know what to make of that."

Mutsumi began to walk away.

"See-you're already learning."

Mitsu turned around to follow her.

"You can't just shoot off a statement like that and expect to-"

But the bustiest woman a very busty woman knew was no longer there. The paneling, floors and furniture seemed different as well.

"Kit-Ryobo?"

The girl with glasses standing before her was someone Mitsu had never seen before, and looked to be the polar opposite of Mutsumi, chest-wise.

*****_**Almost took her for a boy***_

"er-yes?"

The girl looked perpetually annoyed, but with a twinge of this having been a shift from perpetual meekness. Mitsu could almost smell it off her.

"I have decided that I cannot allow the wedding to go forward. Arlo-San has bested all my tests, but he is still wrong for Maehara-Dono, even if she cannot see that."

Mitsu saw something fall from her own hand. It was a lit cigarette.

"Umm-Shinobu and Arlo are getting married?"

The girl stamped down.

"No! NO THEY ARE NOT! She belongs with me. I realize now I've been too meek for too long. Kit-Ryobo, she will listen to you. Don't force my hand in this."

Mitsu was beyond confused, but really did not want to upset this volatile kid any further.

"Why-don't you talk all this over with your friends, first?"

"Be-cause! Sarah-chan and Mei-kun love him too-they-may be hatching their own plots. But I will not be bested. Where do you stand in this? Answer me! I said answer me!"

A young woman of presence and confidence walked up and almost shoved past the yelling girl. She wore her engagement ring proudly, and acted like Naru once had.

"Leave Kit out of this-it's between you and-"

The paneling and the furniture shifted back to what Mitsu knew. The angry girl vanished entirely, while the young woman shifted into a girl on the verge of womanhood, absent an engagement ring, and absent some but not all of the confidence and near-swagger of the woman who had told the girl to back off.

"-me. Mitsu? Mitsu, you said you'd help me this morning."

Sweet little (though not as little) Shinobu stood before a woman she addressed by name and not title.

"Um-yeah. Glad to, kiddo. Uhhh-we're not planning your engagement party, are we?"

Shinobu blushed, and then smiled.

"Oh, you-you're as bad as Kei. We only played around in there-nothing serious."

As the two walked off to talk with a mother and son about their troubles, a floor beneath them, a young man bid the woman he loved to cut power to a device they operated only when the others were distracted.

"That one was close. Who was that girl?"

"Never seen her before, but that's the point, isn't it? We saw her, clear as day. So we have local views, and now we need regional."

Keitaro Urashima refocused and saw his target, but they were at the wrong point in their search.

"Naru-is this during the war?"

In the viewer, Awa and Hinata were running-so were a lot of people. An unholy wail pierced the skies of burning Tokyo.

"Nope-December 1954, just after Christmas. The time of his first attack."

Kei shook his head.

"Then it's no good."

Naru raised a finger.

"Maybe not! Maybe-maybe disasters in history have their own unique signature."

It was hope, so Kei saved their work and shut down the machine. They cleaned up to keep its inventor out of the loop.

"Still-could this end up having any side effects?"

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_I thought I must be losing my mind, after seeing that girl from nowhere-or nowhere soon, as the case may be. Had to be overwork. I've been through more contractors these last few months than I used to go through bottles and cans._

_Then and there, Shinobu needed me. I really wasn't much help, but I lent what support I could. Calling out your boyfriend's mother. Not a task I'd relish, even with a whole liquor cabinet in me and two in reserve._

They approached the meeting-place at one of Alice's restaurants, under renovation.

"So how's your friend Amy-San?"

Shinobu's growth had been obvious in many respects, including some that had been too fast for her Sempais' tastes. But one of the most positive had been how she played same-age sempai to a girl lost in a foreign country after her world fell apart.

"Her grandmother still wants her to wait until her father's reconstructive surgery is more complete before coming home. Amy is thinking of defying her. I don't know what to tell her. For a Japanese girl, that's supposed to be unthinkable-but if it were my Papa, I think I would have already gone over the fence. Whether that's me talking or my feelings for Arlo pushing it along, I can't say."

Mitsu smiled.

"You really like him."

"Yeah, but...I still think of Sempai Kei. A lot. Him and Sempai Naru going at it all the time-sometimes I take off the headphones and listen to them anyway. I want to be fair to Arlo-but the truth is, if Kei asked me, I'd lay back and let him-"

"There's a lot of that going around, kid. Don't let it guide you to a stupid choice."

Shinobu got a predictably sharp look on her face.

"You're one to talk."

Mitsu-Ryobo broke the surface just then, reminding the girl of the culture they were steeped in.

"That is enough! Yes, I am one to talk. You know why? Because, Maehara-Kun, I was the product of my father's affair with another...person. I was left on their altar on the big day because my real Mom was like a Super-Kitsune...literally. Even when I didn't know this, I knew I was born close to the date of their wedding, which meant someone somewhere jumped the gun. That's why I held back all this time, and why you will too, if you're smart."

Once unthinkable, Shinobu sniffed at the statement almost haughtily.

"You sound like Arlo. He 'wants to do' all these things but lacks the nerve."

Mitsu stopped their progress. This horse had to be ridden and broken.

"I used to toss around phrases like that, partly out of cover, and partly out of culture. Have you even thought about where Arlo came from? Why he might not want to repeat history on a girl he really likes? I'm sorry Kei got your hormones all jacked up, girlie, but let's be real. A bold man can get a bold girl pregnant. Kei and Naru have money and a business of their own, should that happen. They have matured, at least from where we knew them. You and Arlo have your parents and us, and that's all. I can't say we'd be delighted to hear you say you've been that stupid, and let's be real about dreams of Todai once that happened. Ten years added to the dream, if in fact you ever make it in. Yes, Mitsune Konno, once the legendary slut Kitsune, is a scared little virgin, same as you. I still also have at least half-a-decade on you. I am still sempai and Onee-chan, and I am still Ryobo, and I will kick the little ass you so badly want Arlo to pump if I have to. This isn't one of Kei's ecchi books, where the guy goes 'oops' at the end and the girl coos 'inside' and then joke about how to handle the baby. The lady you're about to confront probably has a good portion of her problems based in all that 'boldness' crap. So don't expect me to back you up in there when you want to make her a grandmother by way of the same stupidity."

Some of the attitude fled, but hardly all of it.

"This is all Kei's fault. If he'd just nailed me the night of our dinner-"

It was only two fingers strong and on her hand, but the slap Mitsu gave Shinobu brought things into sharp focus.

"He would never have, and if he would have, he would never have survived. We didn't fall for a player's line, Shinobu. We fell in love with a man. Now, are you calm, or should we do this another day?"

Shinobu closed her eyes.

"Mitsu, its gotten so bad, I can't even stay in the onsen too long. It used to be, if Sempai Kei walked in on me, he might see a boob or my butt before I cried and covered myself. Now, if he did? I'm no longer certain I could stop myself as I went at it. My crushes are crushing me. Look at me! Once, I would never have dreamed of talking to you this way."

She mussed the younger girl's hair.

"We can talk, ya know. Just bring the awkward stuff and leave the attitude. I mean, did you have anyone to talk to before this?"

"Just Sempai Kei."

Mitsu's eyes bugged out.

"You-you talked with Kei-"

"Mmm-hmm. He said he had to take responsibility for me, since none of you would."

"We-we-we would have talked to you about-ya know-stuff-Frau Leben! Uh-Uh-"

Shinobu nodded.

"You see? That's why I can't get over him. You all saw me and thought of sweet innocence to be protected at all costs. He saw me and thought of all those wonderful dirty things. I'd give money to be able to see his journal entries about me."

Mitsu wisely did not mention how such a wish could be very disheartening if it ever came true.

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_All that was just in getting there. I thought sure it would be worse once inside. Not so much._

Alice shook her head slowly.

"I've never meant to hurt him. I don't believe this is the right thing to do. It has nothing to do with anything he's done. It just-I don't know, erupts. Moments of raw fury where it almost seems like someone else is in charge of my actions. I just keep hoping that I can remind myself that my son is not his father. Always when I think I've nailed it all down, it comes out."

Shinobu was surprisingly gentle with a woman whose actions, Mitsu knew, had infuriated her. Perhaps the girl's own bout with vengeful anger had made her more sympathetic.

"What brings it out, Alice-San? Is it just that random?"

The son who was being discussed sat with Mitsu, several things keeping him silent. But Mitsu could tell that, among those things was trust in the girl handling his case.

"When he is late or doesn't call, it really isn't all that bad. Usually lateness is followed by an explanation, and a missed call is followed by two extra ones. But in those instances, I see his father again, telling me how my Onee-chan must be attended to-just as my parents did the instant she moved in. Until our affair, I was the flat nail, and she was the one that jutted out. But instead of being nailed down, she was paid the extra attention and given what she wanted. Even before Arlo arrived, I was already coming in a distant second, and I began to suspect even third."

Shinobu sighed.

"Have I made things worse?"

Alice chuckled.

"You? You've forced me to confront this horrible thing I've been doing. His being with you means it can't go unnoticed any more. Without you, I could have lost my son someday."

The silence was broken.

"That would never happen! I would never leave you the way he did! I made a promise!"

Alice grasped her son's hand.

"And making you take such an oath was one of the worst things I've ever done. I've never had to demand anything of you. Everything a good mother could ask for, you've just given."

Yet Arlo could not let part of these tender words pass without comment. He rose from where he sat, actually looking upset.

"Then why have you never once said these kinds of things before?"

Alice at first looked like she was going to cite some event or holiday to counter Arlo's words.

"I guess-that I was always scared that, if I openly appreciated you, you would be taken away from me."

Mitsu openly nudged Shinobu.

"Don't worry. That hasn't happened yet."

Alice walked up and squeezed Shinobu's nose, albeit gently enough not to really hurt.

"I'd heard something about that. Maehara-Chan! Not even four months after our talk about my past?"

As she was released, Shinobu blushed.

"I-I like him. It's the first time I liked a boy, where we both aren't nervous wrecks about it. But it was so nice not being nervous, I forgot to be careful. Your son was careful for both of us. He actually brought-you know-not that we ended up being in a position to need it."

When Arlo was cornered by a glare, he shrugged.

"Most girls classify me as not even a prospect, for more reasons than I can really understand. But Shin-Chan talked to me from Day One. And she is just so-cute. Even though half her words are about Kei Sempai, I don't mind. Again, most girls I've known pretend to be embarrassed by their families."

Shinobu used the opening.

"Alice-San, I don't want anything you or I could do to come between you and Arlo. So I obtained this name and number. It belongs to a psychiatrist. Auntie Haruka recommended her."

Alice took the card. It had a name she was already familiar with on it.

"And when is Haruka going to see this doctor?"

Mitsu nodded.

"We're working on that one. She thinks it's 1999 now. That's something."

Alice threw down the card.

"I can't see this woman!"

Mitsu again took up the gauntlet.

"Alice-San, you were screwed over by an intermittent interpretation of our customs, one that pampered your shrill cousin, and forgave Arlo's father while blaming you. Even your Dad, who was supposed to go against tradition, went from one pole to the other in a heartbeat. Now, are you going to let our people's feelings against seeking psychiatric help destroy what you and your son have together?"

Alice laughed.

"Haruka said you were a handful, Mitsu-Chan. What I meant was, I can't see this woman-as in this particular woman. She was one of Haruka's friends, and I remember her. I even threw her out of my first place for getting drunk underage in it. I could never take her seriously. I told Haruka as much when she first suggested this-before she herself came to be in need of care."

Shinobu smiled.

"She has a sempai-a colleague who practices with her. A Bob Hartless-err, Hartlen-Hartnost-errr-Hart-Hartley."

Alice sat back down.

"A head-shrinker can't change Arlo's looks, or my feelings of betrayal that those looks bring out."

Mitsu, now a bit more sure-footed, came up with the coup de grace.

"I'm half your age-and by that I mean to bring up life experience. But I have you beat in one arena, Alice-San. I know better than you how pent-up feelings can wreck a home. All my friends refused to tell me how poor a friend I was being, till it all exploded-and nearly cost me that same home. Can you afford this service?"

"And then some."

"Then what do you lose by going?"

Alice nodded.

"I will go-on one condition."

She pointed at the young couple.

"I want your word that any thoughts of taking things to the next level will wait until Shinobu knows she has earned admission to Todai. Be careful after that, but before that, nothing that places you in bed together-at all. And you know what I mean by that, so no couches or back seats or what have you."

Shinobu bowed.

"I agree to your terms."

Arlo breathed in, and then bowed as well.

"As do I, Mother. History will not repeat itself."

When the two had left, probably to talk about the next two to three difficult years, Mitsu turned to Alice.

"All an oath like that will do is give them pause. Even good kids will find loopholes. You know what you just did?"

"Yes! I have just insured that they will both find the means and grades to graduate high school early and enter Todai in record time. That alone will keep their motors from revving too high too quickly."

Mitsu stood stunned.

"Wow-Auntie said you had a lot to teach me."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_That was the first time I ever felt like a house mother. I was also kind of happy that it ended early in addition to ending well. I was finally able to schedule a session with Kei and Naru regarding the contractors' beginning their work. We may all have to seek other quarters while they do their thing, in order for it to get done in time._

_Kei and Naru already have another place to stay-each other. My dearest friends are a new couple, and are they ever annoying. Even more annoying is the fact that my predecessor feels the need to sit in-without remembering what year it is, or that I have her job now._

_Then there's the subject I try not to think about, that refuses to let me put her out of my mind. The presence of Mitsune 'Kitsune' Konno-who claims to be me as I used to be._

_I could use some dull times._

"We all know each other, so semi-portable walls will enable us to reconfigure the rooms on our level, while keeping the guest rooms below us..."

Naru raised a finger.

"Umm-can't we do the same thing on the guest level? I mean, if a family that books with us turns out to be larger than we thought, and if the next one cancels, reconfiguring their rooms would make as much sense as for us in our rooms."

Mitsu shook her hand in the air.

"Opens us up to safety lawsuits, pervs and busybodies checking on other people."

Kei called the idea back from cancellation.

"Not if their rooms have combination locks that only we know the codes to. Plus, in an Inn this size, do people have an expectation of complete privacy? I mean, even back when it seemed like I was getting pummeled every five seconds, you girls always allowed me a two-second window to turn around and get out-most times, anyway."

Haruka was a picture in absurdity. Her pregnant stomach was like an announcement that this was not 1999, but her attitude and demeanor seemed almost good-naturedly at odds with this reality.

"Guests? Are we having guests? Oh-yeah-Nori Seta said he was stopping by with Tara MacDougal's little girl. Keitaro, did I ever tell you about him, her and me?"

"Yes, Auntie-you found Exca-an excellent antique Celtic sword in some caves near the Brittany coast."

Haruka suddenly swatted her nephew across the back of his head before getting up to leave.

"I've told you before-call me Haruka-San! Auntie is too familiar and makes me feel old! Now-I have the task of raising the dead-or rather raising Kitsune from her bender."

"Ummm-I'm right here, Haruka. You know me, the one who has your job now? How do you explain me?"

Haruka shrugged.

"Kaolla Su built a time machine, right? So you're from some weirdzo Terminator-Zombie-Robocop future where everything went wrong. Because there is no way in Hell Kitsune could do what I do."

After she left, Naru rubbed the back of Keitaro's head.

"Did she hurt you?"

Kei pshawed her.

"It was barely worth mentioning. I've been pounded by people who knew what the word means!"

Mitsu put aside the dismissive words against herself and kept on Kei.

"Yeah, but Kei-she's obviously getting worse. She may have hit you a few times since you got here, but it was never like with us. And what's with her objecting to Auntie, all of a sudden?"

Naru nodded in agreement.

"Seems like something out of a bad cartoon, like the ones where somebody punches someone else out from a mile away. That's never been part of the Auntie I know."

As always, it seemed that if there was one person in the world who understood his aunt and cousin best of all, it was Kei.

"I talked to Doctor Kashigawa when all this nonsense started. The first part is obvious-she's placed herself three years back, because Grandma was still alive then."

Naru grinned.

"What else did Emi-Oba-San tell her Kei-Kun?"

Kei blushed.

"Hey! She was just happy to see me after all those years. Auntie's friends used to play beach ball with me."

Mitsu felt confused.

"Weren't you too short to reach the net-or anything?"

"Nope. I was the beach ball. They were all fond of jell-o shots. I would have seen them nude-but the motion of being the ball made me sick."

Mitsu felt an ache at the mention of what had been a party favorite-in another life. Naru couldn't help but keep teasing her man.

"Our Kei had a harem, even back in the day. Doctor Emi said they all wanted to marry him!"

Kei unloaded his best on his best girl.

"I'm not the one she offered to do a case study on acceptable levels of violence in relationships, am I dear?"

Naru grabbed him by the collar, and held him at fist point.

"You want violence, you perverted monster?"

His eyes grew cold and steely.

"BRING IT!"

So she did bring it-her face right up against his, that is, as Mitsu sighed audibly.

"Remind me to never create a drinking game based on you two starting in."

Walking-almost stumbling in through the door was the inexplicable Kitsune, adding to Mitsu's headaches. She belched lightly as she saw the two lovebirds kissing.

"Lemme guess-this isn't what it looks like, right?"

Naru stopped, an all-too satisfied smile on her face.

"Nope-this is exactly what it seems."

Kitsune seized Kei by the back of the head and looked at him.

"Let's find out, then."

She kissed him as well, then pulled back while grinning.

"Not bad! 'Cept, ya see, Naru is supposed to be all objectionable to my joke, Keitaro is supposed to be freaking, she's supposed to be punching him while he's crying-"

Mitsu took some small delight in this part.

"Check your calendar, relic. This is a brand new day!"

Kitsune fired right back, pointing to herself.

"Or maybe it's the Clone Saga!"

Mitsu grumbled at both the odd reference and the annoying way her counterpart would always raise a finger in the air before saying something absurd or snarky. She was so obviously fuming, Kitsune couldn't resist moving in for another strike.

"Oooh! Fire in the hole! Fire in the hole-"

The lusty, almost wicked grin that had made a nervous wreck of Kei on more than one occasion now did its work on its former owner as Kitsune kept on.

"-fire in the hole! Bring a hose! A long-thick hose-with a lot of reserves."

She glanced over at Kei.

"You seem to have moved up, Manager-San. You brought your fire-fighting equipment for poor Mitsu? You up to using it?"

Kei seemed to shudder a bit at first, despite his recent changes. Then, he appeared to shift his gaze at Kitsune, and looked almost annoyed.

"That equipment is under contract with a lifetime option I hope gets picked up."

His look then became very annoyed.

"Tell me you have a good reason for doing all this!"

It was finally neo-Kitsune's turn to look nervous. But this she fought off.

"Hey-I'm doing this for her. She's so uptight, she forced me into existence. I guess-I'm asking you to trust me on this one. We had some good times, right, Kei?"

His look softened, but not entirely.

"Yeah, we did. Like that time I forgot something you asked me for, and you forgave it. But whatever you are planning, do it soon. Mitsu is a treasured and indispensible employee and a dear friend. She has a life to live, and a job to do."

Kitsune smiled, grabbed Kei's cheek-then a cheek located far from his face, and then mussed his hair.

"I love ya, Kei-you're sooooo fluffy!"

Kitsune's hands were both grabbed and bent back.

"All cheeks and lips on that body have been optioned-by me. Hands off!"

Naru then kissed Kitsune on the cheek.

"On the other hand-it's almost a relief to see you. Things were getting a little dull around here."

Mitsu shook her head.

"Thanks a lot, Best Pal!"

Naru also kissed Mitsu.

"Just saying."

Naru still teased her man as they left.

"So-how was that kiss, loverboy? What was she like?"

Kei nodded, checking his breath with his hand over his mouth.

"Eighty-Proof. Hope I don't do any driving anytime soon."

"You and every driver on the road, dearest."

"Oh, lady-I wouldn't even want to see what kind of road rage you bring to the table..."

Kitsune made for the door as well.

"I have gotta keep needling those two. They're actually more fun, now that they've unclenched."

Before the once and present queen of mayhem could go forward, the woman who had begun to pray she was the true Mitsune Konno blocked her at the doorway.

"Who the hell are you? No more 'wouldn't I like to know?', or other like vague answers. You told Kei you were here for me. So do something for me, if you're going to do it!"

Again, that smile, joined by that finger in the air, a finger so annoying, Mitsu wondered how Kei avoided cutting it off, during his times in the barrel. Then again, since this was a man who had avoided simply hitting Naru back or telling Shinobu to grow up, that part wasn't so hard.

"I already have, oh retentive one. On Thursday, we leave for home. You want out of the Twilight Zone? Well, the only way out is through. And remember-you are dealing with the trickster!"

"Home? To which family?"

"Both. Or-maybe only one family will be there. Hard to say."

Mitsu folded her arms.

"You love playing the trickster, don't you? You think that can make you happy, because you're always the best."

Kitsune leaned in close to Mitsu.

"I am the best. I am so damned good, I could make you think Mutsumi was a boy!"

Kitsune walked off still smiling, and with Mitsu still fuming.

"Yeah-right."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_Ever since the Kitsune-Mom-showed me Kei's journal, I wondered how a lazy but honest effort to get a guy could lead to that same guy dismissing me entirely. I knew how it had happened, but the why was still on me like duct tape. Dealing with this other 'Kitsune', I now wonder how any of my friends put up with me. Did I call her into being, by trying my damndest to change? I don't want to steal Kei from Naru. I just want to be the sort of person he could have taken seriously. But is the trickster so far up my spiritual backside that nothing can get her out?_

_Thursday, when we both go home, is two days away. Tomorrow-I go with Motoko and Koichi when Motoko introduces her boy-pal to Tsuroko. Motoko is a grown woman, by law very much allowed to choose whoever she wants. By custom, though, Tsuruko is Onee-Chan and theirs is a warrior clan, devoted to outward acceptance of others and inner intolerance of all weakness in themselves._

_Watch out for flying glass._

Kaolla Su smiled at the woman who still held large pieces of her heart.

"Thanks for letting me come, Motoko-Chan. What with teaching Onii-Chan and hanging back after the plane crashes, I feel like I haven't left the Sou in forever!"

Motoko pulled the child close. There was Kei, and there was Koichi, and there was dealing with her sister. But this small bundle of life energy would always occupy a precious place in her heart.

"I can think of very few I would ever wish to have more by my side than you, whether in simple situations or in a challenge such as this."

After a hug, Su went over to Mitsu.

"I tried following her around like you said, Mitsu-but boy she's slippery."

Mitsune had almost known that the secret of her other self wouldn't be broken through surveillance. But Su's offer was welcomed as at least a possibility of doing so coupled with the huge advantage of giving the Human comet something to do other than beg for more of Alice-San's chili cheese fries. If Kaolla Su could be annoying at times, her ability to eat endless amounts of the fat-laden carbs had earned her the wrath of every other woman that lived at the Sou-and the avoidance of all its residents, when those chili cheese fries exacted a gaseous price on the young princess's breaking of the wind.

"It's okay, kid. I'll find out all I need to know, tomorrow. I just appreciate you trying. Huh. You changed, too, but nobody is saying they miss the old you."

Su blushed.

"Yeah-I'm sorry me and Shinobu took Kitsune to the movies with us, instead of you. But she was just more fun, and people were always trying to shush her while she talked over the bad plot."

It had been that way for weeks. Kei played a board game with her instead of Mitsu. Naru watched a horror movie with her, apologizing later for it being force of habit-and it once had been. When Mitsu had been too busy to drink a cheap bottle of sake with Motoko in the onsen-Kitsune had obliged. When Mutsumi had a sudden yen for junk food, Mitsu as a shopping partner seemed to be not even a consideration.

_***Have I lost that much? Damn them all, this is what they said they wanted-I am who they said they wanted. Don't demand I grow up and then ditch me for not being all about the fun anymore.***_

Su next ran up to Koichi.

"Are you scared, Koichi? Tsuruko is really tough. Even Motoko is scared of her."

Having the young princess as an eternal accessory to his relationship with Motoko had taken some getting used to, but Koichi had grown to love her as much as any resident of the Sou.

"Well, little princess, I see it this way : When I'm doing work on a building's air conditioning in the middle of summer, the job can get messy and hot and end up involving a lot more work than we ever guessed. But I can't back out once started, because by then the system's shut off entirely, and nobody can live for long if I don't finish up. While I'm not comparing Motoko to an air system, I did start in with her, and wherever this ends up, I can't just go halfway there and still call myself a man."

Motoko halted before a small, unassuming house that fooled no one at all.

"We have arrived at my sister's home."

Mitsu seemed a bit confused.

"Where's your family's mega-temple? You know, the one that the temples in every Bruce Lee movie only wanted to look like?"

Motoko sighed.

"Mitsu, would you call this place alarming?"

"The place itself, minus your Onee-Chan? Not one bit."

"What would you call it then?"

"Ummm-so charming its-"

Mitsu nodded as she caught on.

"Disarming."

A course of action on the back burner for a while re-formed in Mitsu's head while Tsuruko and her husband greeted them. The man immediately put out his arms for his sister-in-law.

"Welcome back, Little Blossom. What? My arms were good enough when I was Temple Keeper, but not as your Onii-Chan?"

Motoko surprised almost all by entering and returning that embrace. Tsuruko had scandalized her family, just a bit, by marrying a man whose family was once hereditary servants, bound to the temple and to a lesser extent, to the Aoyoma family. But ancient scrolls showing that a change in status had been offered and deferred put paid to the parts of the opposition that true love could not overcome. It had been Motoko who had objected the most loudly. She understood the heartbreak Kaolla Su felt when she had ended all possibilities between them beyond dearest friends, for she had felt a similar heartbreak when the parent/sibling she worshipped started playing house with the man who made sure a young warrior's tough training also had its comforts and joys.

"Shuhei-I denounced you when I had no cause. Can you forgive me?"

The Keeper smiled at the warrior and honked her nose.

"Now-you are forgiven. Though if I'd found someone like that on my sister-he would not be a man anymore, so I always got you, Little Blossom."

Motoko looked at Mitsu.

"If you hold your head dear, Konno-San, not a word about my nickname to anyone!"

Mitsu grinned.

"I may not be Kitsune anymore, but that tidbit has way too much potential mileage to pass up."

Tsuruko showed that, among members of a warrior clan, combat training never really ceases.

"Is my sister afraid Urashima-San will tease her with this knowledge?"

Motoko seemed prepared for this.

"Urashima is my and therefore your brother. He may tease me as much as you, and he is usually fairer about it."

Tsuruko upped the ante.

"A brother whose bargings-in you have ceased to punish-and whom you lost to-along with the robe he seized as a prize. Just when did our Motoko lose her desire for a body wrap?"

Motoko blushed, and turned to her boyfriend.

"Koichi-I'm sorry you have to hear all this."

He shook his head.

"I'm not. I mean, I like Kei-San-the man amazes me for taking all I've heard about and probably more-sometimes most of all from you, Moe-Chan. But I really don't get when all I've seen is your bare shoulders-not that they're not hot-that he gets to see the whole special order-_with_ sukiyaki and fried rice."

Kaolla Su jumped in and both sidetracked and amped up the awkwardness.

"I once offered to send Kei Onii-Chan pictures of me with nothing on-but Motoko ritually executed my camera."

The princess had the last word as they sat down to eat. Shuhei clapped his hands and began the prayer before fetching the meal. Koichi looked on.

"Dude does the cooking?"

Tsuruko raised an eyebrow.

"He does. Does that present a problem, Otohime-San?"

Koichi shrugged.

"Ma'am, I'm a bachelor. Boiling an egg without making egg soup is a challenge for me. Shuhei-San knows how to make a meal-I just wanna learn at his feet."

Motoko looked at Koichi.

"These meals are usually simple, Koi-Chan. We shall be eating Onigiri with very little filling-"

Shuhei walked out with a cart full of steaming bowls.

"Roasted peppers, Fried Beef, and Rice fried in the juices from both of them, not to mention my own fish cakes as a starter! Dig in all!"

Motoko looked at the feast with shocked eyes her sister immediately picked up on.

"Motoko-San, my husband has gone to a lot of trouble. Won't you eat his meal?"

"Since-since when is this part of any meal eaten here?"

"Well-this is not the temple, but rather our own home. Shuhei is a winner of as many cook-offs as you and I combined on tournaments. My sister simply does not visit very often, so a little excess is called for, don't you think? After all, it's not every day she brings with her the first real attempt to get over her painful rejection by the man she truly loves. Do you still write fiction with you displacing Narusegawa in his heart?"

Koichi spoke up again.

"I hope she never posts that stuff, for Kei's sake. Woman's a great warrior, but an awful writer. Me, I prefer Draco/Hermione, and Son-Goku/Buruma. But not Kouta/Lucy-that's just too hard to believe."

Su grumbled.

"They belong together!"

"Let's not go there, 'kay, Little Princess? Shuhei-San-fish cakes rule!"

"My thanks, Otohime-San. Once, during a violent storm, I was offered refuge at an American base. They served-things-they called Fish Cakes. I resolved that I could do better with the worst catches and cuts-though the tartar sauce still helps, I must admit."

Motoko tried to regain her footing.

"It is all most excellent, Shu-Chan. You always were the heart of this temple."

Tsuruko could not resist an opening, but she would find she was not alone in this.

"Was that the same heart you once threatened to cut out for his defiling me? Strange how both men whose lives you regularly threatened are still among us and are now held openly dear by you, sister. One would think..."

The ever-more shaking Motoko was incapable of responding at that point. Another was not. A plate came straight at Tsuruko's head, so fast she barely plucked it out of the air in time. She glared at the thrower.

"You dare?"

Mitsu stood firm.

"Back off, Aoyama-San! Having been a bully, I can't say as I have any tolerance for one, even if she has style and cunning. We told Grandma off-I'm telling you off."

Tsuruko folded her arms.

"Is it your newfound spiritual purity that guides you in this challenge, Konno-San, or your long-time physical purity?"

Mitsu refused to take the bait.

"So you have a spy-or something at the Sou. Big deal. I can do all mystic, too. But you know that, right? Motoko has always been my pal, but now she's also my charge, and as such, I demand you come out and tell her why you're trying to provoke her instead of just speaking your mind. "

Tsuruko patted her sword-sheathe.

"My sister can find that out any time she wishes, merely by invoking..."

"You're pregnant."

Tsuruko looked at Shuhei, who indicated he had said nothing of this supposed surprise. Motoko shrugged.

"Sister, I'm not a little girl anymore. If I'm not afraid of your man, then I'm not afraid of my niece or nephew by way of him. I still love Urashima, because he is the place where I finally grew up and stopped quailing over a few inches of extra flesh. I still love Kaolla Su, because she was the place I started to grow back the heart I cut out of myself. Koichi-I may learn to care for you more, but it is so soon, and you are the first one to touch my heart without my first chasing them away. I think that may be a good sign. Are you in a mood to be patient and find out?"

Koichi smiled.

"Put a body-wrap on when fighting Kei, and get Shu to teach me some cooking, and you got a deal, fighting lady."

Tsuruko seemed both impressed and put off all at once.

"Sister-how could you know?"

Mitsu answered.

"I once knew a lady whose level of bullshit became so pure-grade, she could be seen right through, even at her best scheming. So with the help of our princess here, she put together a messed-up plan no one could figure out, and she nearly blew herself up. Again, Tsuruko-it's like we told Grandma. The Kei-Sou Bunch has a lot of problems, but being united is no longer one of them. We've grown past hidden tests, and provocations with another agenda. I mean, you couldn't just tell your sister this wonderful news, instead of making this evening hell?"

Tsuruko cleared her throat.

"Ahem! Sister-you tell her."

Motoko looked sheepish.

"I-once-kind of-vowed-to errrrr-cut any, ya know, ummm-hell spawn out of my sister's belly before I would let it be inflicted upon a planet that had too many males as it stood. I didn't make the vow to anyone directly-so it didn't count, right?"

Koichi winced.

"No babe-that counts."

Su nodded.

"Yeah. You can't go that far and then say it doesn't count-we are talking about vows, aren't we? I never catch on to these things!"

As the evening kept on and broke up into giggling talk about babies and names, and with Kaolla Su pressing her ear against Tsuruko's stomach every so often, it came to be a much happier one than any there could have guessed at first.

"Mitsune-you are a fierce advocate for my sister. I must admit, I badly underestimated you. By my late mother's accounts, you have moved into your new job far faster than Haruka-San ever did. I had expected a rougher transition."

"Well, so did I. Tsuruko-San? Can a person be haunted by a part of themselves they left behind?"

Tsuruko looked non-committal.

"I have heard about that, too. I would advise you that, around the world, spirit stories end two ways. One of those involves the specters and their lessons, grim and glorious, being quite real."

"And the other?"

Tsuruko chuckled.

"The other usually involves a group of meddling kids and their Great Dane."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_I thought sure she was mocking me at first, maybe for my lack of propriety in calling her out. But then I started playing teen-okay-post-teen-sleuth. It hit me in a thunderclap, and I knew exactly how to handle the other Kitsune-her and her-OUR-whole family. The only thing that stings is why I didn't see it sooner. An old book of Grandma's provided what I needed for the journey home. Mutsumi, bless her, offered to come along for support as I call out my own folks for keeping me in the dark about so much. But I hug her and let her off the hook, so she can give her brother some advice on handling Motoko._

_Kei as always helps me along, though not directly. When I see him promise the crying Sara to get her new Mom back to normal and mean it-I wonder why I didn't love him as soon as he walked through the Sou's front door._

_I was probably drunk. Well, Kitsune Konno-I'm sober now, I know your secret, and I am prepared to kick my former ass._

The Konnos' home was immaculate as always. Mitsu took this in silently, while Kitsune couldn't seem to manage this.

"Never changes, does it? Always and forever, this place is Staid Central! Hey, Sis? Just why are we here again? Cause I'd rather have Su perform root canal on me."

Mitsu had developed a strategy for dealing with Kitsune that only Mitsune Konno could. She was ignoring her.

"Mom? I'm here."

Kitsune was not so easily ignored, and nudged Mitsu hard.

"We're here, Girl-Friend! I won't be ignored!"

Mitsu was now in her zone, a study in calm.

"You mean the way Kei ignored you, when he chose Naru?"

Kitsune seemed to fall off her pitch at these words, but resumed quickly.

"Hey-they aren't married yet. Bro just needs a little persuasion."

Mitsu turned her back on Kitsune as she responded.

"He will never choose either of us-especially you."

Mitsu then upped the ante and held up an ornate platter.

"Mom-come out now or I will smash this heirloom with a song in my heart and a smile on my face."

The platter was casually snatched out of Mitsu's hands by a woman Mitsu once thought she knew, at a speed that she supposed was meant to shock her.

"Mitsune! First of all, there's no need to play the drama queen. Second, this is hardly an heirloom. It's actually rather crass and kitschy. For the life of me, I can't remember why I bought it."

Kitsune looked at the piece.

"Knowing you, Mom? You probably found out Mrs. Minoho down the way had her eye on it. You two and your shopping wars!"

Saki Konno chuckled at these words, leading Mitsu to an almost perfunctory question she wisely did not expect a straight response to.

"Mom? There's two of me here. Why are you so accepting of this?"

Saki kissed both Kitsune and Mitsu on their cheeks.

"What? I shouldn't welcome my daughters home with grace and dignity?"

Mitsu seemed on the verge of picking up the logical argument, but instead spoke small prayers by a collection of family portraits.

"So-where's Dad?"

"I am here, Mitsune. Are you well?"

Aran Konno, a man who usually started in on her manner of dress, whether wild or conservative, was choosing to bypass that entryway. Mitsu knew something was wrong, and on more than one level.

"Actually, Papa-San-No. I'm kind of split in two, and a woman I met claimed to have tricked you into being her lover-and that I was the result."

Her father and mother pointed as one to yet another instant visitor.

"Would that be your mother's sister?"

"Heya, kid-you look great! Kind of prim, though."

The Kitsune Mitsune had met all those months ago was there, yet Mitsu showed no signs of surprise, which did surprise all others present. Kitsune Konno leaned in, grinning her trademark grin.

Well-not her trademark, per se.

"Ummm-Mitsu? Doesn't all this sudden revelation kinda-sorta rock your world? I mean, this place is brim-full of confus..."

Mitsu's fist lashed out at her past doppelganger, catching her full in the nose, as Mitsu told 'Kitsune' something she had ached to since tumbling to the big scheme.

"Cut the crap, Kanako!"

At last the disguise of the wild party-girl faded, revealing a girl as much ninja as samurai-and sister in her own way to both Kei and Mitsu.

"You didn't have to hit me!"

Mitsu grabbed her up.

"And you-don't have to obey every dumbass family order when you know how stupid it is. The supposed grownups know a lot, Kan-but they don't know everything."

The mother Mitsu had known growing up separated them.

"Stay off your sister, Mitsune. She knows how to obey, something you never have learned."

"And-Mother-what did obeying get me? I got major crit from the two of you whether I was Polly Purebred or Suzie Slutty."

The mother Mitsu had only recently met spoke up now.

"My Onee-Chan does things in a roundabout way, kid-but she always means well and she usually knows better than you think."

A clash old but new to Mitsu's eyes took place.

"Usually, Little Flower? Just how many times have I bailed your tail out of a hunter's trap?"

"Don't-DON'T push me with that Little Flower crap, Saki! You know I hate it!"

"Is that why you slept with my husband-the one you couldn't get honestly?"

Mitsu thought to herself : _Irony-just what I needed. All in all, I'd rather be Naru Punched, sliced up by Motoko and endure a joint crying jag from Kei and Shin than take any more irony._

"All right-would someone please tell me-"

The two women were gone-and in their place two foxes growled at each other. Kanako shrugged at Mitsu.

"I am told they have always been like this."

"Not in front of me they haven't...ENOUGH!"

Mitsu felt her voice echo, with thunder and wind shaking the room around them. The foxes shifted back to the form of women.

"How-did I do that? Why is Kanako my sister, with my family name, and why are my Moms sisters, and why haven't I ever known about any of this-AND-"

The storm kicked up again, but Aran Konno stepped forward as though the winds weren't there, and hugged his little girl.

"Calm down, honey. This time, we'll explain it all. Ladies-whose idea was it to have Kanako deceive her sister in this way?"

Both women raised their hands, and the foxes looked sheepish as they all sat down.

"Papa-I don't understand any of this."

"It is both simple and difficult, Mitsu-Chan. Firstly, of our respective clans, only I and your mother may bear or sire children. So even though Kanako was born of her sister's affair with my lecherous brother, and even though your aunt tricked me with your mother's form and birthed your spirit, we two are the only physical parents both of you have."

Mitsu tried to take all this in, and found she could not.

"O-kay. So everyone here is a Kitsune spirit?"

Aran seemed to appreciate his child's efforts at calm.

"Not everyone. You and I are different. You are-complicated. Your nature is that of three worlds. You are beyond all of us, yet no one here is more Human. But I am not a Kitsune, though nor am I Human."

"Papa, you're not a demon, are you?"

Aran laughed.

"No-no Mitsu. Not at all."

The mother recently met nodded.

"Your father is no demon."

"Well, that's good..."

The mother recently revealed as more than believed nodded as well.

"He's a god."

Aran looked at a stunned Mitsu.

"My father is the Storm and Lightning God Protector for this realm."

Mitsu felt very strange.

"Does he have a name?"

The newer mother snarked at her.

"Ever play a fighting video game, kid? The gory kind?"

Mitsu's jaw dropped.

"Oh-him. Look-why didn't you tell me any of this-and why this game with Kanako?"

The mother she had known spoke first.

"We all first met Hina when she was adopted into our clan. It's almost unheard of for a Human, but she helped us get what we needed from this world, and defended us where she could."

The mother who was a little too much a Kitsune continued.

"The world started to change after the bombs dropped. After the 1954 Disaster, it was clear that the forests needed an advocate, or most of our clan would not see the 21st Century. So we started playing Human almost full time, and helped seed the environmental movements across the world, in conjunction with other local spirits. It's like Saki Onee-Chan said. Someone was always pulling my tail out of things. Aran's brother was a pretty-boy Light God, and I fell for him hard. That's how we got Kanako-and that's why he jetted. Aran here was so nice and my Onee-Chan so supportive, I wanted in to a relationship that didn't need a ninth paw. The rest was like I told you-she made the comment, I made-you to get even."

Aran nodded as though to confirm the ever-wilder story.

"You were kept in the dark because we wanted you to be raised well away from the kind of irresponsibility that gods and kitsunes often engage in. Your mother was angry with her sister, but they are sisters, in the end."

"But what about the other Kitsune? Why do that to me?"

The mother who had never taken a Human name rolled her eyes.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time. Kitsunes always go too far, whether in play or work. Honey-bun, your very soul can seize up from too much work. We worried that this 'Mitsu' might be a lie you were living."

Saki Konno kept on with her sister's words.

"So Kanako did this for us, but with a warning that she would not do it again."

Mitsu stood up, clapped her hands together once, and looked around at her family.

"So-instead of telling me what I was, you tried so hard to raise me normal that I rebelled -stupidly-against normal. I go crazy fighting against normal and boring, so I get vague misleading hints as to who and what I truly am-"

Mitsu cut off her birth/guardian mother with a look.

"-that no one bothered to confirm or deny. So I sit for months, stewing over what the hell I really am and what all this means while watching my best friend mock me verbally for beating me to the finish line with the man I was too stupid to pursue seriously-not to mention the orchestral sounds of their rhythmic humping-which by the way never stops. I am literally getting so lame and riddled with doubt, _**SHINOBU**_ is seeing more action and getting closer to the finish line than me! I even manage to piss Mutsumi off-and that's next to impossible. Oh, and let's not forget I'm doing all this while grieving a woman who was more of a mother to me than anyone here. Add-ons include Haruka breaking down and Motoko also starting to outpace me."

This time, it was Aran's turn to shut up at a glance. God or no, he did not interrupt.

"But rather than say 'Mitsune, don't let all this change who you are' or something like it, you all have Kanako-who must think her real name is Chess Pawn by now-play this game with me. Ya know, I'll always make time to visit-but I haven't got time for this."

Aran rose, and rather than throttle his little girl for her tone, he held her close.

"We were partly afraid that we'd fumbled things too badly to have the authority to just pull you aside like that. And is getting to the finish line that important? You have a LOT of time ahead of you."

"I made a rep, Daddy. I created a wild party-girl, and I wasn't really her-not in some important details."

Her spirit-mother shrugged.

"That is so typically Kitsune, I can't even begin to talk. Whole archives of our legends involve one of us being called out on our built-up rep. Sis here once swore she slew an ancient enemy of ours-he wasn't so dead. I once had a hoard of field-spirits try to drag me to the netherworld-never gamble with the undead, kid. They have no sense of humor."

The mother who was still Kitsune but less so in demeanor also rose.

"I was the main one keeping the truth from you. Not for powers or propriety-but for fear that-if you knew that I was not wholly your mother, you would-"

Mitsu held this dear woman before tears could compromise her dignity.

"You are Mama. We may butt heads, but you were here for me."

Her other mother was next.

"I want to get to know you. I want you to stop by and get to know everybody. But you can only come under one condition."

"What's that sweetie?"

Mitsu shook her head.

"Get a freaking name! What are you, Clint Eastwood?"

Kanako, Saki and Aran all looked at the woman with eyes that said 'Told You So'.

"Walk your sister home, Kanako?"

"A pleasure, Mitsune."

"Folks-it's been-badly confusing. But I will prove to you that I have changed from being both too irresponsible and then too responsible. I will very soon prove to you that I have learned the lessons of maturity, and yet I remain at my core-Kitsune."

To the surprise of all, Mitsu shifted into a fox, and darted out with Kanako who did the same. Once outside, the two shifted back.

"You are learning rapidly, Mitsune. I needed instruction the first time I met Mother."

"Yeah, well, I accidentally shifted into a wolf a couple of months back, so I already had some clues about it."

"Yes. We are able to shift into something other than foxes, as a legacy of our fathers. But the truth be known-I prefer my work with material disguises. Much more satisfying."

"Yeah-like when you made Mutsumi look like a boy? What were you, advertising it?"

"I was getting tired of the disguise-and perhaps of hiding who I am in general."

Mitsu looked back at her childhood home and smiled.

"Think they tumbled to it yet?"

Kanako chuckled.

"You mean that the prayers you muttered were really a binding spell Grandma once showed me? They will not be pleased."

"Ehh-it can't hold them for long-maybe a week. But I think lessons like these will come to a stop. You coming back with me, Double-Sis?"

"I cannot, Mitsune. Unlike you, I cannot witness the man I love holding so firmly to another on a regular basis-especially not one whose past treatment of him I find unacceptable. Though I'm now aware-so does she."

Mitsu began her walk home.

"Naru used to love 'The Boxer' by Paul Simon. Now, she tells me, the part at the end, where the sounds of the boxer being pummeled mercilessly play through-make her cry and think of Kei. She gets it, Kan-Chan. He's forgiven her long since-she might not ever. What about Grandma? Why haven't you made an appearance on that front?"

Kanako began to mist out.

"That would seem to be a cruel and heartless thing, wouldn't it? There is something-wrong-about her death, my sister. Something very wrong."

The disguise-mistress gone, Mitsu found herself alone. Later, she would hear those words in her head once more.

"Yeah-very wrong."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL**

_Back home, I had infinite messages from the parade of contractors we will soon have coming through our house. I had to throw Haruka out of my chair-again. I had Su bouncing off the walls and neck-hugging me. I had Naru freak at all I told her, but she deserves it for outing me on the virgin front. I had a very studious Arlo and Shin using word-games in their prep studies to accomplish what their new promise keeps them from physically. Those kids can be creative. Motoko and Koichi have reached a compromise in their efforts to move things forward. They now watch Samurai films from here in Japan badly dubbed into English for comedic effect. Problem is, only Mutsumi really knows American English well enough to explain just how badly the dialogue is being butchered. For Motoko, having her bustier friend about in this is as much of a blocker as it is for Koichi to have his sister on hand. But they're still managing to have a laugh, and I envy them that. Maybe when my debt is paid in full, and that's coming up, to hear Kei tell it. As the night ends, Sarah calls, and I reassure her by saying just how much of a pain in the ass her Mom is being. Guess who ends my not-so-perfect day on a perfect note?_

"Kei! That's not for almost a week from now!"

Kei kissed her on the cheek and bid her eat some of the Valentine Chocolates.

"You looked like you could use them now. I was originally afraid that 'Kitsune' would eat them. She was known to do that."

"You knew who she was?"

"I caught on. No matter how good Kan-Chan gets, to me she will always be that little girl falling out of her first disguise attempt while exposing her little butt. Things may change between us, but she is still my first sister."

"Annnnd-you didn't tell me-why?"

Kei looked a little embarrassed.

"Yesterday, she begged me, based on our love as siblings, not to expose her. There's only one thing I've ever been able to refuse her."

Mitsu gave in and asked a question.

"Kei-how am I doing in this job?"

"Doing? You have this wonderful old place ready to finally perform to its potential, and you ask me that? I thought you gave up on the snarky remarks."

She smiled and blushed a bit at his compliment.

"I am still Kitsune, after all. And being said scam artist, I ask my employer : What are you and Naru up to? You're planning something."

Kei yawned, looked around, and shrugged.

"I think Winter's getting to you, despite the recent warmth. Things should look clearer when Spring begins. What I can't figure out is, why didn't we all react when you first shape-shifted a few months back?"

Mitsu took his barely-hidden hint and let the matter slide for then and there.

"Kanako told me, that, despite all the weirdness in and about our lives, we still react in disbelief when struck with the unbelievable. Immortals, Titans, Spirits, Gods, what have you-whatever we may secretly be, in the way we perceive and react to the world-we are still only Human."

The small moment between the two friends was broken by a development they most pointedly did not need.

"Hey! What are you two doing here?"

It was Haruka, pointing at the two of them. She puzzled particularly on Keitaro, but was soon smiling.

"Are you my little cousin Kei? Wow! You've grown! Who imported the Geek God in place of my little pal?"

Kei and Ruka's wince-inducing comedic flirting was by now well known to the residents of the Sou. But this time, as Haruka rubbed up against him, there was no routine.

"You know-cousins are legal, last I checked. How old are you now?"

Keitaro looked more nervous than Mitsu had seen him in well over a year.

"Twenty-Twenty-Two!"

Haruka snapped her fingers.

"Damn! We'll have to wait-"

The next words dealt a telling blow to hopes of her easy recovery.

"I don't turn eighteen till my next birthday."

In the doorway, Naru looked at Kei and Mitsu and all shared a mental *_Oh Boy* _moment.

_**SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001**_

Thirteen seconds remained until impact.

Hinata Urashima felt a sense of utter and complete calm overcome her. At last it would be done. She had loved her life, but she now looked forward to the reward promised to the good true and faithful.

"What is that ahead-?"

In front of her eyes, Hina saw a great portal form in the New Jersey Palisades, a gate made all of crimson and dripping the blood of innocents. She knew the thing both from her studies, and from the half-whispered legends of her nearly-forgotten early childhood

"The Red Gate!"

When another second had passed, Hina felt arms hook beneath her own. Arms that began to pull at her.


	7. Chapter Six  Fallen Idol

**Chapter Six - Fallen Idol**

_Author's note : This chapter's opener features a cross-over with plot elements of one of my other story series, also posted on . Hopefully, I don't over-reference it._

_**April 15th, 1951**_

Awa found them in a geisha house, as he expected.

"C'mon! Urashima-get your back walked on."

"Yeah, pal-if a back ever needed walking on, yours does."

Awa shook his head at the two American surgeons.

"Gentlemen-my head is what's going to be walked on, if I don't get you two back to Hinata."

The one visitor who often took the lead did so now.

"Why do you put up with her abuse? What's the point of you working your tail off so she can chop it off? Sisyphus and Prometheus had an easier time of it, and they only ticked off Mount Olympus for having better fashion sense."

Awa knew that this description bore little resemblance to either Greek legend, but addressed his guest's other concerns instead of his non sequiturs.

"You two are known as mavericks. I heard you all but hang up on your commanding officer, when he called you at our hospital. Perhaps you don't understand Japan beyond those young ladies and the bars you frequent. Hinata may be a taskmaster, but I am her subordinate. That means I take orders from her, and I accept those orders cheerfully and gratefully. That sums up our entire relationship-"

Urashima gave away only a little in what he mumbled after, but for these two, it would prove enough.

"-whatever else I may wish of it aside."

The curly-haired doctor waited until Urashima was out of earshot. He smiled.

"I've always wanted to be a heart surgeon."

His dark-haired counterpart nodded.

"Let's just hope that heart is also on the other sleeve."

Back at the veterans' hospital, the two made the rounds that were part of the reason for their three-day visit.

"Listen, if you don't let them elevate your legs, they won't drain properly. You won't like what happens then."

Hinata translated for the once-young man.

"Doctor Pierce-he says that he can't grab at all the pretty flesh he sees before him when his legs are immobilized like that. He would rather lose his legs than lose such an opportunity."

Pierce chuckled.

"Tell him he's a man after my own heart. But also tell him that even before they take his legs, not having them elevated could cause a heart stoppage-and that's the end of all fanny grabs."

The patient listened and allowed his legs to be raised. Pierce seemed surprised.

"Funny. I'dve thought an outsider would be the last one he'd listen to."

Hinata saw Doctor McIntyre having an easier time with his patients, and was glad for this.

"You are an outsider, Doctor-but you are also a man. These men may call me their angel, but I am still a woman, with certain of my words forever discounted in that light."

Pierce seemed to stop and consider something.

"Ya know, I've been told I do that to the nursing staff back at the 4077th. Myself, I'll wait till one of them tells me that themselves. I guess even Awa shows you that kind of dismissal, then?"

Hinata's face showed genuine surprise.

"Awa-San is one of the only people I can always count on to get the jobs that need doing done. Doctor, has someone been casting aspersions on his performance?"

Pierce loved any opening, from the tent-hole in the MASH Nurse's Shower to the tank-sized hole Hinata had just provided him.

"My mistake. I kind of thought he must be giving you some grief-given the way you pounded on him when we first showed up here."

Though forceful, the surgeon was skillful enough to cut around what would normally be Hinata's defenses.

"I see. Doctor, unusual circumstances meant that I was underage when I took this respected position. To add insult to injury, I also looked much younger than I was. Awa-San graciously agreed to become my legal guardian. We share an apartment. We are family, and the dispute you saw boil over here-to my shame-was over some socks he failed to clean as asked."

Pierce now ventured forth into the mine-field.

"Lady, that beating was not over some boiled socks. In fact, these words we're sharing right now constitute the first kind thing-or even the first not hate-filled thing-I've heard you say about Awa. Too bad he wasn't in earshot when you-"

Hina's face visibly shifted, and she openly blushed. Pierce nodded.

"So it's as simple as that? You're sharing an apartment, and what you'd like to be sharing is a futon. How closely are you related?"

"What of this is any of your business?"

"One thing is, I'm here to observe a well-run veteran's hospital and make a courtesy report to your superiors. If I take note of something that I think will make this place run less well than its supposed to, I owe it to you to bring it up here, in private."

Hina looked bowed, despite sitting down.

"For that, I-thank you, Doctor. I would prefer that such matters be settled in this way, of course."

Pierce kept on.

"Two, I'm a Doctor, and as a certain second-in-command and shapely yet stiff Head Nurse will tell you, I'm also an inveterate, unapologetic, dyed-in-the-wool of my sheepskin diploma, card-carrying, bleeding-heart do-gooder. I see two people so obviously in pain while also obviously caring about one another, I have to butt in with this schnozz that some people think gave me my nickname. Hinata, I treated my stepmom with the kind of distance you try and keep with Awa. Now she's gone, my Dad is alone, my stepsis is back with a father who'd mobilize the National Guard to keep my Dad and me away, and I will never be able to tell a terrific lady she was appreciated-and loved."

Hinata gained a misty look.

"My own stepmother intervened with my father to reverse my banishment. I had to stop her from trying further, or else he might have sent her away as well."

"Banishment? What, you tried to marry someone he didn't like?"

"I was a child. I forged a friendship with a sailor under Admiral Perry's command, and..."

Her look became one of horrid realization, but Pierce seemed not as shocked as he should have been.

"Since I tippytoed into your life, here's some of mine. When the first wave of wounded hit our wet-behind-the-ears camp last year, we were short of critical supplies. Me and the Head Nurse spot our CO, Henry Blake, pleading with a General, who had supply trucks backed up outside the camp, to let them on through. Bottom line, Henry had to make a deal with the devil to get those supplies, and we've watched in silence as that devil collected again and again. Three Doctors and three nurses died in a way I don't ever want to describe, and we have to pretend we never knew them. A South Korean village was bombed by our side with bacilli-carrying shells whose effects we're not even sure of. Promptly covered up. Said Head Nurse and I get what are supposed to be flu vaccination shots. Of over 2000 personnel to get these exact shots, she and I are the last ones still dancing-I'm not even sure how long we have. So when I poked my Hawkeyes inside your nest-it was because Awa didn't show any scars from that pounding, and neither did your fists-and you punched a steel drawer in two."

Hinata understood.

"You thought our strange status might be connected to your conspiracy. Understood, Doctor. But Japan has secrets of its own, and its spirits, fairly or unfairly, like to remind their children not to be willful or disobedient. You see, at one point, my curse was broken, but Awa-San screwed that up for me. Yet now that I have lived as an adult, I no longer resent his saving my overlong life."

She got up, and Pierce did the same.

"Then what's the trouble?"

She began to tear up.

"I have never told him-he is likely my cousin Aja's descendant. I sought him out when I did because I would finally have an Urashima who could not cast me out..."

Young, lovely and defiant, and now looking vulnerable as well, she was irresistible to Pierce as he grasped her hand.

"So tell him."

"Tell him? Tell him that I have abused his bad fortune from the start, and that I knew his ancestors?"

"That-and tell him that you love him."

"No!"

Awa strode in, Trapper's efforts to delay him having finally given out.

"She doesn't have to say anything she doesn't mean, and she would never mean that."

Hinata pushed past Pierce, and looked her accuser in the eye.

"And how would a man who can't even plow a plane into the deck of a huge ship know which direction my emotions go?"

"Do you HAVE to keep reminding me that I am a failed Kamikaze?"

Pierce whispered to his partner.

"How do you fail at being a Kamikaze?"

McIntyre shrugged.

"So he missed."

"That, or Five O'Clock Charlie has Non-Korean relatives."

"There is Frank-proof of an American branch."

Hinata tried to stand firm.

"I bring it up not to haunt you, but to remind you that in the past, your judgment has not been exactly sage."

Awa also tried this tack.

"Like when I stopped you from dying?"

She shrank just a bit, almost seeming to lose height.

"I no longer consider that to be a wrong. I-may have been too hasty in seeking death. Part of me longs to confront my father's spirit over his unjust curse. But part of me loves life and seeing what each new day brings-"

"So you don't tell me this? Instead you hit and curse at me for four long years?"

She slapped him.

"Baka No Otaku Shingami!"

He pushed her.

"Onidere Yokai!"

Trapper whispered to Hawkeye.

"I wish this argument came with subtitles-or at least had a dubbed release."

Pierce shook his head.

"Nah-dubs are horrible-they never get the voices right."

The couple had reached their turning point.

"Can you forgive and accept the love of one who was once so bitter and overly prepared to die?"

"Can you?"

When that question was answered on both sides with a kiss, the American Doctors smiled.

"Trap-we done good."

"Yeah-but I still wanna know some of those curse words. They sounded cool."

Hinata held her man and looked at her intrusive visitors.

"Gentlemen-Awa and I have something to do-"

Hawkeye waved a hand in the air.

"We'll hold the fort down-but our ride is expected pretty soon."

Awa shook both their hands.

"We will be back before then-and thank you for being so-American!"

Trapper nodded.

"Just wait and see!"

Hawkeye continued.

"For an encore, we plan to reconcile Mao and Stalin."

As they raced away to the local American occupation government's justice of the peace, the couple laughed a bit at each other, and at their helpers.

"I still say they are too young as a nation, and as a people, to wield such power in the world."

Hinata did not entirely disagree.

"And yet they do. Still, some of them seem to handle it better than others."

With a license in hand an agreement to keep the marriage to themselves for the present, the Urashimas (Twice again so) returned to the hospital just as the Americans' escort arrived. He was not even as tall as Awa.

"So Henry doesn't trust us?"

"No disrespect, Trapper, but not ever unless he has to. That's why he sent me to fetch the two of you horse's patoots-his words, not mine. Did you do anything, while you were here?"

Hawkeye saw the couple smile and flash a piece of paper.

"Nah, Radar-we sinned and we wined and we dined-and we helped these nice hospital admins clear up a misunderstanding. Radar O'Reilly-meet Awa Urashima and Hinata Urashima-some folks who know how to keep compassion in the mix when the soldiers start to be forgotten."

Awa stared at Radar, and Radar at Awa. Both said the same thing.

"Nice glasses."

"Thanks."

The surgeons said goodbye to Hinata and her patients, and more than a few of the female staff. Awa would see them all again in Tokyo, during an early reunion held in December of 1954.

On those days in December of 1954, Tokyo would burn as it never had during the war, and a frantic Awa would search for his bride while an inhuman roar echoed in the fire-lit night.

_**March 11th, 2002 11:15 PM**_

PRIVATE ENCRYPTED JOURNAL, PRINCESS ROYAL KOALLA SU MOL-NE

_I hate them all. They have one and all betrayed me. My brain hurts to even contemplate what they did. All their moral lessons-lies. All their talk of responsibility-a sham. All their talk of sensitivity to the feelings of others-hypocrisy._

_When this day began, I had no cares at all. I had tons of sisters, and one of two brothers I love well enough to marry, available to hug and kiss at any time. It was like having a perfectly ripe bunch of bananas that never spoiled or drew too many gnats. Now, I am merely a little fool they probably all chuckle at. Why shouldn't they? They have what they needed. _

_Engaged or no, all I wanted was a bath with him to let our bare skin touch and feel the joy of the touch of one you love._

_Now, though? The mere sight or sound or smell of Keitaro Urashima makes my skin crawl. _

_I wish now we had thrown him out._

_**8:15 AM**_

A splash was heard in the onsen outside. Shinobu walked in with her robe on and a wet Keitaro on her one arm.

"He fell in again?"

Shinobu seemed nervous, but Su almost felt like it had nothing to do with the intrusion.

"yeah. Sempai is lucky I took my oath never to hit him again."

She flashed a smile that seemed forced.

"After all, regardless of where his face landed, he isn't one of my children!"

"So sorry, Shinobu..."

"It's like Motoko said, Sempai. We've all seen it all by now. Just be more careful."

Su felt confused.

"Where did you fall from, Onii-Chan?"

Shinobu and Kei looked at each other and their faces showed blind panic.

"I fell from..."

"He fell off of..."

"That is to say I fell through..."

"Or he fell over..."

Su waved her hands in the air.

"Stop! I just don't get how it is you two can be so unlucky as to have this happen three times in the same morning."

Kei breathed in hard, and Shinobu again followed him.

"Three..."

"...times?"

A splash was heard in the onsen outside. Young man and young woman scrambled up the stairs like lightning.

"Huh? They didn't even run that fast when Motoko thought they had gone ahead and do..."

Shinobu walked in with her robe on and a wet Keitaro on her one arm.

"He fell in again?"

Su's mind immediately flashed to the solution for this oddity.

She just as quickly rejected that solution as impossible.

_**JOURNAL**_

_What a little fool I was. The answer was right there in front of me. But I told myself, and I told myself, that answer involved someone I loved doing something I knew they would never do. But he was-and he wasn't the only one doing it. In fact, only two people in all the Sou weren't in on it. One of them was crazy out of her mind, and the other was being driven that way by the first one._

_**9:15 AM**_

"So when did you come to live here again?"

Su sighed. Everyone had told her what was wrong with Auntie Haruka. That her grief over losing Grandma Hina six months ago had made her amnesiac and delusional. Her own friend, a psychiatrist, seemed to think she'd snap out of it herself.

"Just before you arrived back here, Ruka-San."

But the now very-pregnant Mrs. Seta had regressed even further back, worrying even the easy-going Doctor Kashigawa. If she didn't have a breakthrough soon, her husband and Kei might have to get her in-patient help, something no one wanted to see. Even with Naru and Motoko backing them up, the idea of trying to commit a riled-up Auntie was flatly terrifying.

"Su? Do you have-a thing for my cousin Kei?"

Su looked at her.

"Ummm-girls don't have things-except in those other magazines Kei picked up by accident. He threw them out, but I looked at them. The stories all had the same plot. The two girls are close friends, only one of them realizes she's never seen the other get undressed, and there's this sleep-over..."

Haruka burst out laughing.

"Girl, you're a treasure! By the way, who's the blonde girl I saw around here before? She American?"

Su excused herself, and did a quick swing around the perimeter. The air was warmer than a March morning should have seen, but Su wasn't paying attention to that. She landed near a set of bushes on the edge of the property line.

"Come on out. I can't believe you came all this way."

Sarah rushed out and into the arms of her dearest, closest friend.

"She's my Mom. I had to see her."

Su sat with her on a couple of stumps.

"I had a Mom. I had a Grandma, and I was going to be a big sister. Dad used to say maybe I was mean to Kei too often."

Sarah, as strong a girl as Su knew, was crying openly.

"Am I being punished for that?"

_**JOURNAL**_

_I didn't know what to say. Most times, I don't know what to say. I'm glad Sarah wasn't a part of what they did. I'd like to have some good memories of this place._

_Kei must have thought of part of this plan when he shut himself off. Except for that one time right at the start, I never saw it coming._

_They all played it cool. Kei called Seta-Sama and told him where Sarah was, before he and Naru left for classes. Looking back on it all, their rearrangement of their class schedules to bulk up their work but leave certain days clear might have been a clue they were planning something._

_But then, I would have had to believe they would ever hurt me. I didn't, back then._

_**11:15 AM**_

"But Motoko! Sarah needs me."

They had made for the local hilltops Motoko had once used as a safety against Su's escapades and the wrath of the other residents.

"Sarah needs her rest more, Kaolla Su. She sleeps soundly in Kei and Naru's room. I think the feeling of a couple's bed is giving her comfort right now."

Motoko began her lesson for that day, Su agreeing to let Kei's lesson to her pass in favor of him holding the distraught Sarah, telling her she had nothing to apologize for, and that her Mom would find her way back.

"Princess-does every month in the common use calendar have the same amount of days?"

"No. Some have thirty, and some have thirty-one."

"So all have either thirty or thirty-one?"

Su began to feel almost insulted, but kept on.

"No. February has twenty-eight days."

"Always?"

"Motoko! I know what the calendar is!"

The samurai was the picture of perfect calm.

"I am not teaching you about the calendar. Princess-does every train in the world run as fast as the elevated bullet trains we know and use?"

"No. Of course not."

"Should they?"

Su put a finger to her face while she thought about and answered this part.

"Well...ideally. But some trains carry freight, so technology would have to improve a lot to make the energy and fuel usage worth it. Some trains are meant to show off the scenery on their routes. If they went as fast as the bullet trains, you can't see as much."

Motoko unsheathed her sword.

"My clan tells stories of two foreigners, Scotsmen, who came to wield katanas made here in our own land. Should katanas be the only swords ever made?"

"Of course! You told me a lot of times how they're superior to almost any other swords."

Motoko nodded.

"So the large two-handed Claymore, a holy terror in the hands of men like William Wallace and King Robert The Bruce, is of no use, despite the many battles it won, and the many foes who lay dead around it after as little as one stroke?"

"Ummm..."

"And Dao Broadswords, deadly whirling twins of China, they should be just put aside?"

Su shook her head.

"Motoko, I don't understand where any of this is leading."

Motoko sheathed her sword.

"There are always rules, and these rules should be kept to, sometimes even at great cost. But rules are often as defined by their exceptions as their adherence. We strive for the ideal, but we are the living, and being so, liable to make mistakes or need room that the ideal often does not allow for. We should live and die by the sacred things that make us who we are. But the most sacred thing of all is life, and its protection sometimes involves that which is very much less than ideal."

_**JOURNAL**_

_Was she trying to prepare me or warn me? How could she, of all people, have been a part of this? Motoko-Chan, if I loved anyone like I loved Kei, it was you. I worshipped you. Saw you as the ideal. An ideal that had no exceptions. Even when-even when you laid down that stupid rule about being my teacher cutting us off-I thought you were-_

_For Koichi's sake, I hope he's ready for how two-faced she can be. How two-faced they can all be._

_**1:15 PM**_

"Thanks for coming with me, Su. The others hate going to these out of the way markets."

As Motoko's lessons had ended, Mutsumi caught the pair headed back down the hill and with a smile, waylaid and drafted a tired Su into her service. Still, it was like an adventure. She just knew the best places to find stuff.

"See the odd markings on these beans? They're grown on a few acres of land in Sicily. No other beans in the world have their exact taste or coloration."

Su often found herself entranced by Mutusmi's beauty, her spirit as shown through her eyes (when they weren't closed from a sudden fainting spell) especially, as well as the more obvious things. But the things she found on this trip were almost as striking.

"That merchant said that spice was five times hotter than either wasabi or habanero. Could that be true?"

Mutsumi laughed.

"You have to speak merchant. Five times is merchant-talk for twice to three times as hot."

The day kept on, and a small rented shopping cart started to fill up.

"You bought those green beans already seasoned?"

"This blend has garlic, onions, and a sesame-olive oil mix with. It's three days old, which means everything's had a chance to really soak in. There's gods that haven't eaten anything this good."

At the next stop, Su was glad for glass jars.

"Mutsumi-that cheese-its-"

"I know. Even mice run away from it. But I swear, it will make the meal when mixed in properly. Picture the best of feta, blue cheese, cheddar, pepper jack and brie all in one."

"I'd rather picture a gas mask!"

At what was promised to be their last stop, Su's stomach ached.

"All those potatoes! They must be cooking them up every way there is!"

"Mmm-hmm. Alice-San recommended this place. The Johnny Rocket's has strict ingredients, but all her other places have baked potatoes that come from here."

They sat down and ate baked potatoes stuffed with chicken teriyaki.

"I don't even usually like baked potatoes. But these are so...is this about how I hurt Shinobu's feelings?"

Mutsumi shrugged, and men noticed when she did that.

"What? I don't understand."

"Shinobu tried to make me chili-cheese fries of her own, but I told her I only wanted Alice-San's. Motoko said I should have been more grateful and at least tried them."

"Not everything is a lesson, Su. At least I didn't intend one."

Su was almost happy to hear that, having spent a couple of months on edge last year, feeling like she would never regain her footing.

"Mutsumi, you got boiled potatoes from here, and all that other stuff. What are you making?"

"I'm going to teach Shinobu how to make Otohime World Island Welcome Stew. My grandmother taught us that all the world is an island, and that in addition to the things we knew, we should throw in things from all over the world."

Su tried to do some math.

"Is this to welcome Auntie Haruka's baby? Cause it's not here yet, and she doesn't even know she's having one right now. She scares me a little."

Mutsumi took her hand and squeezed it.

"She'll be fine. No, this isn't for the baby. Kei told me a member of his family may be stopping by tonight. Could be-"

Su saw Mutsumi grow visibly nervous.

"It could be anyone at all."

_**JOURNAL**_

_We had a good time. I loved getting out, especially after being cooped up during the fall and winter. Mutsumi even surprised me with a banana split sundae served inside a banana cream pie shell._

_I don't want to believe that she was in on the whole thing, but she kept me out for so long._

_Even I couldn't finish all that food. But someone who 'just happened by' did. I wanted to say something as she also 'drafted' me. But these people are my family._

_Or at least they used to be._

_**4:15 PM**_

"Lucky thing I ran into you two."

Su struggled not to sigh or groan.

"Yeah, lucky thing, Mitsu."

Mitsu glanced at the folder she gave to Su.

"You ready to confirm some appointments, kid?"

Su did not roll her eyes, in the greatest act of self-control of her young life. But it was close.

"It's what every island princess dreams of."

Not being thrown even the barest of bones, Su decided to get a bit vicious.

"So who's coming over tonight? Kei Onii-Chan's parents?"

The look of barely-disguised panic on Mitsu's face as she turned to look told Su all she really needed to know-and desperately wished were not true.

"You-you never know who'll show up, do ya?"

Mitsu turned away.

"But then, that's life at the Sou, isn't it?"

Mitsu picked up the pace, finalizing the work she and Kei had planned for months.

"Mitsu, aren't a lot of these projects scheduled tightly into one or two weeks?"

Each stop seemed to only confirm Su's very basic math.

"Well, kid-we want it all done at once. Plus, with all those contractors around, if one doesn't have a certain tool on hand, the others will. No excuses for stopping the work, and if something or other suddenly 'just demands' to be done-most types of contractors will be right on hand."

Su at last spotted an ulterior motive she could comprehend.

"And you get to scope out all those hunky contractors, especially when they bend over!"

After a long fall and winter of hibernation, Kitsune was shining through at last.

"Welll-a girl does not live by loving nerd alone. Now that I know about my folks and my real heritage, I feel like I'm finally ready to make a certain horizontal move-maybe."

Su smiled.

"Mitsu-what exactly is your real family and real heritage?"

_**THREE HOURS LATER**_

"I'm glad you went with the short version. So Kanako and you have the exact same parents in body, but she's still only your half-sister, and your Granpa is one of the guys from Street Fighter?"

Mitsu was holding a grape ginger ale and shaking.

"Don't-don't make me describe all that again. It makes my head hurt."

Su nodded.

"I love you Mitsu. You're always fun."

The princess look became serious.

"So with that in mind, I will forgive you if you tell me what's going on, back at the Sou. Why has everyone been working like crazy to get me as far away as possible?"

A sudden downpour forced them to seek shelter, but nothing could save Mitsu from Su's glare.

"No fair using your vaguely demigod-like powers to make it rain, Mitsune!"

Mitsu shut the rain down and rubbed her temples.

"Wow, even that statement made my head hurt. Why can't I just be the product of my Mom and a dentist from Hokkaido or something?"

"Answer me."

Mitsu nodded.

"Su-what if I said that you have to trust us?"

Su pulled out her cell-phone, and dialed a few numbers.

"I'd say that trusting you all was a given-"

She bounded off the nearest wall, and all but bounced into the seat of Sarah's Mecha-Sama.

"-twelve hours ago, before you all started lying to me!"

Mitsu's eyes flashed.

"Oh no you don't, little princess!"

Five seconds later, Mitsu teleported, leaving only scant evidence that she had ever been there.

"Damn! Gotta work on that!"

Five seconds after that, she went back to collect her clothes, which had not transported with her. The girl with the odd, off-putting heritage then opted for mass transit.

_**JOURNAL**_

_I didn't want to hurt them, or even yell at them. I just wanted to know why. Was this what Onii-Chan felt in Molmol? I hope this wasn't to make me understand, because that I'd resent._

_I've tried so hard to take in all their lessons, to really think over some of the things they showed me. I did it for all the people I love, and for the two I loved best of all._

_I wish Mecha-Sama Amyjo had broken down. Maybe then I would never have found out what they were up to._

_**8:15 PM**_

An electromagnetic field of unknown origin forced Su to land about five miles from the Su. She ran like thunder for all but two of them.

"No! Get out of my way!"

Standing firm against her passage were Naru, Shinobu, and most heart-breakingly, Motoko.

"Su-let me take you to Alice-San's for some cherry shakes and some chili cheese fries."

"I'd rather have a friend I can trust, Shinobu. Remember when that used to be so important?"

Naru held Motoko's bokken, and shook her head.

"Kei Onii-Chan asked me to ask you to stay out here, Su. Don't you love him? Don't you love us?"

"The people I love would never do something like this, Naru Onee-Chan. I know what you're doing. What I can't figure out is why."

Before Motoko could speak, Su shot first.

"Was being this wishy-washy the reason Tsuruko let you run away? Don't teach me about openness and truthfulness and then do something like this!"

The battle was joined, and the girl saw her friends did not mean to hurt her physically. Their tactic was pure blockage. Shinobu's skillet only caught her foot at the flat of both, there to block her jumps. Naru held her down when she could, the force of her punches now contained in this holding pattern. Motoko literally seemed to be everywhere at once, shaking her head at every glimpsed passageway. Finally, the princess stood unsteady, and they moved in. Shinobu teared up.

"Su! I'm so sorry-but it has to be this way for now."

Knowing her speed and moves, the three moved against Su like greased lightning-only to realize they'd forgotten how wily she really was as well. Like Charlie Brown and the football, Naru, Shinobu and Motoko flew up into the air and were knocked cold as they landed.

"Bananas also have peels-ladies."

Finally inside the Su's grounds, she saw Arlo crouched down by the herb garden shed Mitsu and Mutsumi had set up.

"Psst-Su. You got past them?"

"What's going on, Arlo?"

The young man shrugged and looked scared.

"They're all out of their minds. I was going to wait it out inside the shed, and hope they return to their senses."

"Yeah-everyone is acting nuts."

Su nodded, and went in before him. Arlo breathed in, then shoved her inside the shed and padlocked the outer door.

"I'm sorry-they said it was that important. I like you, Su. Shinobu's lucky to have a friend like you-"

"You're lucky too, Arlo."

Arlo saw that he was holding the robe-gown that Su had been wearing. Su minus any garment now stood before him.

"Soooo-cute."

His nose bled for one reason, and then another as Su kicked him in the head. When he was down, Su planted a kiss on his lips before redressing.

"Now, Shinobu-you learn the lesson."

The master of this maze lay inside the house. Yet he would be easy compared to who she faced now.

"Don't fight me, Mutsumi. I'm angry enough."

She made for a room with glowing lights in it, but Mutsumi spun and turned her away with ease.

"He's gonna use it! He could destroy the world!"

Again without apparent effort, Mutsumi kept Su off her feet by trips and dodges that denied her the air.

"Is it treasure? Art work? Do Kei and Naru want to make themselves not waste three years figuring things out? I don't understand! You all told me how bad using it even once could be, and even for observation. Why would you trick me and use it when you told me not to?"

For good measure, Mutsumi nearly knocked Su out with a chest block.

"Okay-they are real. Owwww!"

Then the nearby timer alarm went off, and Su was shocked to see Mutsumi yawning.

"Oh-is it 9:15 already? Did he do it?"

Su was incredulous at what she realized about the fight.

"You were asleep the entire time?"

Su pushed past her, and opened the doors to the back room. Keitaro was nowhere in direct evidence.

"My time machine! Kei activated it! Nooooooo! Kei, what were you thinking-and how did you master it?"

He mastered it, she realized, by way of her own lessons in physics.

"Onii-Chan-used me?"

The portal through time, normally no wider than a postage stamp, was wide enough now for a man twice Kei's size.

"Something's coming through?"

Kei jumped through, his back to Su, and something held in his arms. A man not given to shout except out of nerves gave a clear cry.

"I DID IT!"

The others rushed in to join them, and at last Kei turned around. He had indeed done it.

The one in his arms woke to see the faces of those she loved surrounding her. She had perhaps expected this, but not from these particular loved ones.

"I-am-alive?"

Naru took his burden from the exhausted Kei, and kissed their oldest and newest visitor on the cheek.

"Welcome Back, Grandma."

_**JOURNAL**_

_Maybe their intentions were good. But that's the whole point, isn't it? They all told me and told me that my time machine was the single most dangerous thing ever invented, and that I had to destroy it and never use it again. They showed me all these lessons about how such a powerful thing could be used for evil, or by someone who meant well but didn't realize what they were doing. I believed them, because they were my family. I accepted their judgment. The time machine was a great invention that could not ever be used for the right thing. This was their firm, unshakeable conviction from which they would never yield._

_Until of course, they needed to use it for something they deemed important._

_I spent an entire month last year being told how I had been callous and irresponsible in Molmol._

_But I guess it's all right to be that way when I'm the target._

_**MARCH 17TH, 2002 **_

Kei was at last ready to try.

"Like we said the other day, Haruka-Chan-we want you to meet someone."

She gave off a sly look.

"Is this about my snuggling up with you that night, Cuz? Because I was cold, and I'm sure Naru prefers sleeping on the floor..."

"Ruka-Chan?"

Hoping against hope that the strain wasn't too much for either lady, Kei let them look at each other.

"mama?"

The very tough, very pregnant woman ran like wildfire into the arms of her grandmother and adoptive parent.

"Mama-you came back to us."

Tears of joy and a face that showed memories coming back gave Kei a sense of unrestricted hope he would regret later.

"How?"

Hinata looked at Kei, and his hope began to waver.

"That is what I've been wondering. And I think it is time someone finally told me."

_**JOURNAL**_

_I want to understand. I want to understand that for five days, they were dreadfully worried about Grandma, all holed up in her room and not responding. They were trying to prep Auntie as per Doctor Kashigawa's instructions, so they didn't make things worse._

_What they weren't doing was telling me why they tricked me. What they weren't doing was saying why they had to fight me when I got too close. What they aren't doing is telling me why, when I did something they didn't understand in Molmol, it was the crime of the century, but when they do it, it doesn't even merit an explanation._

_I-I want to be happy that Grandma is back. But even Grandma doesn't look happy._

_Ever since I came to this place, I felt a connection that no other spot outside my birthplace held. When the other girls left just prior to Keitaro coming, I missed them but it was okay. But it was all those that were left I knew were a part of me. When he arrived, I had to start playing with him. If I had ever known I was actually causing him pain, I would have stopped. I loved feeling his beautiful face with my feet. _

_What if-what if-it wasn't really all done with after last year? What if they decided to just get rid of me, and part of my punishment was thinking it was all done with?_

_But no. Grandma's passing would have to be a part of that, and there's just no way. But what is going on? Motoko, Kei-I loved you. I loved you all. You told me not to lie or trick, but you did. You told me how dangerous the time machine was, to use even once, but you did. You told me that explaining yourself is so important, even when you mean well. They talked about me like I was some kind of bulldozer on automatic overdrive._

_Actually, I kind of liked that. _

_This? This I don't like at all. It's uncertainty, and I think I could even hate it._

_I think I could hate them. For real._

_**MARCH 18TH, 2002**_

Haruka sat on the couch, and held a now very much at peace Sarah as she slept, the baby she had chosen next to the baby that had chosen her.

"Su? You seem distracted."

Kaolla Su had hung close to her best friend and the only person besides Grandma who she could verify was not 'in on it'.

"It's good to have you back, Auntie. It's good to have all of you back."

Haruka felt a kick inside.

"This is so weird. I was only just showing, and then I wake up-and I'm nearly at term. I never thought I was this weak."

Su turned her head at that.

"Who said you were weak?"

"Kid, a tragedy like this hitting me I can accept. But I went out of my mind. Thought it was four years ago, then twelve or more years ago. Did I-did I embarrass myself?"

Su shrugged.

"Well, you surprising Kei in the onsen-and the shower-and while he and Naru were-"

Haruka sighed.

"Emi says the reasons I fixated on Kei was that he's safe. A man I like who would never abuse my affection. Well, that and I'm a corrupt old woman with a nephew fetish."

Shinobu walked in, looking upset.

"Su, I went to put your laundry in your room-and I found you'd packed all your things. Are you going somewhere?"

Most everyone in the Sou was near enough to hear the Princess's response.

"Yes, Maehara-San. I am leaving here. Forever. Because these past few weeks demonstrated to me that I cannot trust you, and that I am someone you hold lightly, if not in contempt."

As the shocked gasps went through the room, Su shook her head.

"Play it up. I'm not falling for this deception. You'd have to be concerned about me to be shocked, and I know the truth now. I am someone convenient to blame when stuff you ignored for years bubbled over, and convenient to use when my oh-so terrible invention was needed to suit your purposes."

She looked at the one she was angriest of all with.

"Urashima-San, you told me how dangerous the time machine was. It was like you couldn't stop telling me. But when you wanted something-somehow that made tricking me and using it behind my back alright? I wish you were the molester they all said when you arrived-I'd at least have one pleasant memory of you. Instead, you are the proof that women always want the one who's worst for them."

The tears in her eyes struck Keitaro dumb. It had much the same effect on Motoko as Su turned her fury on the samurai.

"I loved you! You were the source of light in my life when I came to this place! I found joy here, but the pains were beyond my ability to cope. Then I saw you. What happened to honor, Aoyama-San? What happened to the thought that we must always have morals, and lines we shouldn't ever cross? Did falling for him mean doing whatever he says now? Have you gone from threatening to chop his off to losing your own?"

Both targets felt the sting of her words, and the unmistakable shift from titles of affection to ones of near-indifference. The others quickly noted that she wasn't even bothering with them. Kei managed a few simple words.

"Su, we did it to save Grandma."

This did absolutely nothing to calm the frustrated princess.

"Yes. Grandma, who we all love...Grandma, who lived a long and happy life, and then left us tragically. A woman who had her time and lived every minute of it to the fullest. She was gone, Onii-Urashima-San. You put your morals aside because you couldn't handle it. A deal with the devil to save an old woman, however beloved. I hope you got some taiyaki or at least a quesadilla for your soul. What's next? If Grandma gets badly sick, will you give up Naru, too?"

"Kaolla Su-I taught you only recently that even hard moral stands must have exceptions."

"You did do that, Aoyama-San-the same morning you set all this up. I told my family the people of this land had changed-but I guess Japan still thinks people from the small islands are all idiots."

Mitsune picked it up halfway.

"You told them we had changed? From what?"

Shinobu took it the rest of the way.

"She was sent here. Molmol didn't have contact with the outside world since His Showa Majesty and President Roosevelt were kidnapped by King Jamba Lya. My Granpa and Hank-San saved them."

Still not addressing Shinobu directly, Su denied nothing.

"And if they hadn't-the war could have ended that much sooner. We are a small place, but we have worth, and hold many of the world's ancient secrets and artifacts-ummm-some of those we got through piracy, but still."

Mutsumi seemed not surprised but hurt.

"Why did you never tell us? Hadn't we passed whatever test you had-before this?"

Su proceeded to her room.

"I owe none of you any explanations."

_**JOURNAL**_

_Idiots. Their soldiers ignored Molmol's natural defenses, and underestimated our soldiers, all in the name of their 'supremacy'. The American envoys were arrogant too, but at least they brought gifts and food. The first pizza in Molmol almost swayed Granpa Jamba. One of the offhand comments made by the envoys ended all talk of alliance._

_Did they somehow think I wouldn't notice they were keeping me away?_

_I have to leave here. That I would ever want such heartless fiends to live with me in Molmol astounds me now._

_I want this to be all a dream, or a practical joke. I owe Grandma a courtesy call, and then I'm out of here-forever._

_**MARCH 19TH, 2002**_

All her bags were packed, and it was a lighter load than she ever imagined. There was very little she wanted to remember of this time in her life, now ended.

"Dork."

Su turned and saw Sarah lying in her hammock.

"Yes. I guess you were always right. He is just a dork."

With Sarah MacDougal, it was a dangerous assumption to think you knew what she meant by any particular words.

"Not Kei. You."

Su angrily upended the only friend she had left in that place.

"Owww-that hurt! And you're still a dork."

Su got up in Sarah's face.

"Don't push me, Sarah! You're the only one I still like here."

"Yeah? Well what if I said I was in on it all along?"

Su's face crumpled, but she shook her head.

"You couldn't have been. Your being here actually made me want to stay closer to the Sou, when they wanted me further away."

Sarah got a wicked grin.

"Ahh, but that's how clever the plan was. I was the thing that made you think maybe there was no conspiracy. After all, if I was here, and you wanted to be near me, then how could there be a conspiracy to keep you away?"

Su looked on the verge of tears again.

"Is this true?"

Sarah hugged her.

"Of course not. But let's say I was. Would you give me a chance to explain why I did it, and maybe apologize for how I did it?"

Su pointed out to the common living area.

"None of them have offered up a single apology or explanation past saving Grandma!"

Sarah pointed at Su.

"Yeah-but have you asked them for either? You're upset, and you let them know it. But before you blow off four or five good years over one harsh day-don't you owe them and yourself to hear what they have to say?"

Su half-smiled.

"You're growing up."

Sarah nodded.

"And I'm gonna have a rack the size of Alaska!"

They walked into the living area, and one and all bowed to her. Mitsune spoke first.

"We apologize for deceiving you."

Shinobu.

"We apologize for keeping you in the dark about the plan."

Naru.

"We apologize for opposing and attacking you as you came back home."

Mutsumi.

"We apologize for thinking we could truly outwit someone as savvy and smart as you."

Motoko.

"We apologize for not realizing that such an undertaking could leave you with doubts about our love for you."

Keitaro went last of all. He touched her cheek.

"And now we wish to explain ourselves."

Su shook her head.

"You already did. It was all for Grandma."

He sat her down, her defenses disarmed enough for them to talk.

"But you have questions about it all, right?"

Su started her assault logically.

"Let me see your math while you talk."

Keitaro never even questioned that she could listen to him and check his calculations at the same time. He set up Naru's laptop, a Christmas present from her parents, and inserted the Data CD.

"What's your first question?"

It was blunt, and like Su herself in good times and bad, struck near the heart.

"Why didn't you use the time machine to stop all the bad things that happened, last September 11th?"

Keitaro moved her search through the disc to a set of documents.

"I calculated that. But each thing we could have tried would have actually made things worse, if not on that day, then down the road."

Su actually seemed equally intrigued by both the narrative and the data that seemed to confirm it.

"Wow. But wouldn't just informing someone that an attack might happen that week have helped?"

Naru sat down with them.

"Information about a possible attack was floating around. But the different parties that had it failed to let the others know, or they weren't supposed to reveal it. The thing that changed that was the day itself-which is, unfortunately, usually what it takes."

Kei nodded.

"Subtle hints of an attack wouldn't have gone anywhere. Direct information would have been discounted or-in some cases, led to the discovery of the time machine-not always by groups with the best of intentions."

Su looked at Shinobu.

"You-you have a friend whose mother died when one of the Towers collapsed. Why not save her too?"

"Sempai said that finding her in a building that big, especially in a panic, led in his scenarios to either getting hit in the collapse or too many people trying to get out, collapsing the portal."

Su glanced at more data, her wide-eyes coming back a bit as she did.

"Mitsu? What about your Marine friend?"

"Bad thing is, kid-the US Military isn't big on revealing details about certain operations. I think Joseph died during one of the first attempts to take Tora Bora. But he could have died en route from sniper fire, his convoy could have hit a mine-I don't really know the hows and whys enough to help him."

Mutsumi glanced at some of the data as well, but began to swoon and pulled back before speaking.

"That is quite an eyeful. Su, in the end, only Grandma's fate met the criteria for not making things worse and knowing almost precisely when and where it happened. Even with that, the height and speed of her plane had to be calibrated against."

Keitaro nodded.

"There were still two wild-cards to calculate. One, just whose body did they find in that plane? That still needed to happen. Two-was you."

Su looked up from her data feast.

"Me?"

Motoko opened her arms, and Su did not hesitate to run into them.

"Sweet princess-all of our moves and reactions could be calculated, after a fashion. But not yours. Never yours. For that reason, you were in danger. Kei realized that you might, after all our high-sounding lectures, try to stop this, whether we told you or not."

Keitaro pulled up one final document.

"With the dangerous forces that machine can unleash if disturbed suddenly, my calculations took a horrible turn."

The readout on-screen said it plainly : _**If present at activation threshold, probabilities run at 79.663 percent that this will result in the accidental death of Kaolla Su.**_

Su looked at them all with new eyes. They still needed to apologize, just as they had. But now things were clearer.

"So you kept me away to save me?"

Motoko shook her head.

"We also knew that, after telling you the machine was dangerous, we would look like hypocrites-and I suppose we are, results aside. But I think I speak for us all when I say, better the scorn of the living Kaolla Su, than the memory of her as she was lost while we tried to save another that we loved from oblivion."

Keitaro looked at her.

"We have explained ourselves, and we have apologized. Now-will you forgive us?"

Su hopped up, kissed him on the cheek, then headed like a rocket for the room she kept the time machine in. Before they could react, it lit up, shut down, lit up again, shutting down once more when Su emerged. She was smiling.

"I used it one last time, then slagged all the circuits. If it could tempt even my family into tampering with time-then it really is too dangerous to exist."

Keitaro realized he had not a leg to stand on, and so asked his next question carefully.

"One-last time? On what, Su?"

"Uh-uh! Me first, Onii-Chan."

At hearing himself called that again, Keitaro acquiesced.

"Go ahead."

She pulled him close, till their foreheads touched.

"You're smart, but not that smart. Naru Onee-Chan is smarter, and so is Mutsumi. But you did things with the time machine even I hadn't thought of yet, and I built it!"

Keitaro gave in on this one as well.

"Sometimes, brainpower isn't so much about how smart you are, as how determined you are. About a century ago, what is now called Urashima Bakeries was still up and coming, and my mother's ancestor faced an important bake-off without adequate protection for his hands. He invented a technique of shutting off all normal pain and emotions, so that he could grab the hot pans and tins. He won the contest and began our fortune, but he was now a blank slate. Incredibly efficient, but cold and distant. Only his daughter's unrestrained tears brought him out of it."

Shinobu winced a bit at that story, but said nothing as Su responded.

"So you just used that to make your brain able to do things you can't normally?"

She kicked him in the head.

"Stupid Onii-Chan! We could have lost you to that! Don't ever do that again!"

As the foot came back for another hit-Keitaro grabbed it-and began to tickle.

"I ALWAYS wanted to do this."

Su exploded in peals of laughter.

"Noooo-don't-unless you really mean it!"

Keitaro blushed.

"Mean it?"

Naru leaned over.

"Didn't you read that book I gave you on Molmolian customs?"

Su's grin was a bit wicked, and Kei began to look like he was melting. Sarah smiled.

"Finally! Something I can recognize in this place! Back to normal."

Those who dwelt in the Sou had long since learned to not trust the passing of a storm until it was a sure thing. This proved to be a wise foresight, as Haruka emerged with Grandma Hina.

"Kei-Grandma wants to say something to you."

When his always-loving but not always-expressive Auntie pulled him close for a hug, Keitaro knew something was up.

"Grandma?"

Hinata looked at her grandson, a man who had risked and planned a great deal to rescue her from certain death. The slap she struck across his face was hardly the worst he'd ever felt, but no blow his 'sisters' had ever struck hurt worse-even to Shinobu's one-time ambush. Its sound though light seemed to echo right through the floorboards.

"I thought you were finally ready to walk as a man. But you are nothing but a willful, disobedient child, seeking to undo what Heaven has ordained."

If she had been anyone else, Hina would have then faced the fury of several young ladies. But she was Grandma, so only Kei's muttered response struck back at her.

"I-did it to save you, Grandma."

"And who asked you to? I have lived my life, and I am prepared for the time that it will end. What of all the others lost to that horror?"

"We-we calculated that trying to undo September 11th would lead to the world's governments not taking security measures that-"

Another slap came, and this time only a look from Kei kept the ladies back.

"Excuses! Weak-kneed excuses! Why is my life worth any more than any of the countless fallen, including those who will now die in a war in a land no power on Earth has ever been able to conquer? Why would you fail to accept that an old woman who has lived her time-and more than her time-will now pass away? You are not fit to run this place that bears my name!"

She pressed a yen-note into his hand, one of a small denomination no one else could make out. Kei looked at it in horror.

"You're invoking it?"

"As is my right! And don't look at me like that-it is you who have violated the terms of that agreement."

Keitaro looked down.

"As per the agreement, I accept this note and relinquish ownership of the Hinata-Sou back to you."

The shock that went through the room was like a simultaneous punch to their collective stomach.

"Grandma, am I still a part of this family?"

"That will be decided later! Do not push me any..."

As her hand lashed out again, this time it was caught by Naru, and the other held firmly by Motoko.

"Don't. Not even you get to do that again."

"So say we all."

Naru went flying over Hinata's head, and Motoko found herself kicked through a doorway. For all that, the old woman barely seemed to move. Shinobu dropped a skillet she hadn't even realized she held. Mitsu plainly forgot any hidden heritage and fought to keep her bladder control. Only Mutsumi and Su seemed to be plotting a next move, but none came.

"Anyone else?"

Haruka stood between her cousin/nephew and her grandmother/mother.

"Yeah. Kind of. You've had your say, old woman. And don't scowl at me-I know you want great-grandchildren, so don't you so much as mark me."

Hina pointed at her in fury.

"You-ungrateful-do you know what he did for you?"

Haruka was again unimpressed.

"Yeah. I do. Do you know what he would think of you, right now?"

Hinata withdrew with a frown. Haruka told Sarah to fetch her things for the trip back to Seta's house.

Keitaro looked around.

"I can't stay here. Not after this. Naru-will you come with me?"

She punched him in the face.

"Sorry, Honey. I didn't quite hear that question."

She then pulled him close.

"She'll get better, Kei. She's just shaken up right now."

"She's never hit me before, Naru. Never."

Shinobu had been about to protest Naru's punch-then realized that Kei really had asked a dumb and insulting question of the one who loved him best of all-maybe.

Mitsu shook her head.

"My debt is owed to the Kei Urashima management. Where you two go, so do I. And Grandma Slappy gets to deal with all those contractors."

Mutsumi looked very sad.

"She's in torment right now-but I can't forgive her dragging Kei into that torment-so count me in."

Motoko sighed.

"I still have so far to go. Yet even Tsuruko could not have taken her in combat. To take the grandmother, I'd best keep sparring with the grandson. I am there."

Shinobu felt warm, despite the chill in the air.

"Arlo is attending therapy sessions with his Mom sometimes. I still want to see him-but leaving all of you is not in me."

Keitaro was glad they had already reported and explained Hina's 'recovery' to the various proper authorities. Doing it after the fight would not have been in him.

"I appreciate the show of support-but just where are we going? Housing at Todai is out during the break, and that's likely to be extended because of the post-Winter repairs on the campus-the storms were pretty bad. We could be away for almost a month."

Su stood up.

"I know! See, I got this telegram from my cousin Tirama in America. She was sent there, just like I was sent here. She wants me to stay with her awhile, and I can bring all of my friends. She and her friends live in a place near Harvard University in Massachusetts."

Assent for this, especially in the wake of Grandma's anger, was quickly reached and universal. Naru chuckled.

"Watch-my guy here will end up pulling off Lady Liberty's robes."

_**THAT SAME MOMENT, IN A SMALL TOWN NEAR HARVARD UNIVERSITY**_

Keith Ulster looked at his fiancée.

"Tirama did what?"

Natalie Natterman shrugged.

"She invited her cousin who lives in Japan over-apparently with a bunch of her friends in tow."

On the nearby treadmill, Molly Ayers shrugged at the man who had literally fought her for her admiration. He lost, of course.

"Sorry about that, Ulster. I swear, if I could find the means to contain Tirama's energies, I'd not only win the Gold Medal, but solve the fuel shortage as well."

Missy O'Timothy, meditating on the couch, smiled.

"New friends...new vibrations to take in."

Kathleen 'Kitty' Connor laughed as she did their house taxes.

"No thanks-you vibrate enough. Umm-are they gonna pay their own way? Budget's kind of tight."

Sherry Maher checked the cupboards.

"We bought all those supplies when those false alarms about a blizzard kept coming through. We have enough either way. Mister Ul-errr, Keith?"

"Yes, Sherry?"

"Are we really ready for these people? Japan is just so different from America."

He laughed the gentle laugh that made the young girl love him from early on.

"Well-it is different. I'll bet their fella doesn't get hit as much. But who knows? I welcome visitors here to the Hilda Inn. Maybe in the end, we'll just find out that our strange visitors are more like us than we could ever have imagined."

While walking over to Sherry, Keith slipped and fell.

"But-uh-someone get on Tirama about these banana peels?"

_**SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001**_

Twelve seconds remained until the plane would impact with the New Jersey Palisades.

Hinata heard what sounded like her husband's voice, and then felt arms hook beneath her own, and pull her out of the seat. As she was held, she heard Awa's voice saying 'I DID IT!' - but it was not Awa's voice after all.

Inside the empty plane, eleven seconds remained until impact. Above the pilot's seat, a light appeared, and someone dropped through another portal in time. They only heard a girl's voice say 'It's What You Deserve' in Japanese before the portal closed up again.

While that person will remain unknown for now, rest assured the girl spoke truly and justly.

_**NEXT : LOVE, AMERICAN STYLE!**_


	8. Chapter Seven Love American Style

**Chapter Seven - Love, American Style!**

_Author's note : Like last chapter, this chapter's opener features a cross-over with plot elements of one of my other story series, also posted on . Hopefully, I don't lose you. Thanks!_

_**December 28th, 1954**_

The smoke choked off all hints of light, and would have even if there had been power to run lights. The roar of the beast echoed through the darkness as it waded through buildings made of stone and steel as easily as it had through water. Awa Urashima felt his lungs sear from the heat some said emanated from the creature's giant throat. He cared about only one thing.

"HINATA!"

All around him, people ran, though whether for their lives or just out of blind panic, he couldn't say.

"I should never have left her."

But this had been her order, hadn't it? Report to the Chief Administrator that the veterans' hospital had been successfully evacuated, and that the charges they loved so well safe-or as safe as anyone could be, in what had been the proud city of Tokyo.

"I Thank You, Urashima-San. Now go and find your wife. That is my order."

But so far, it had been an order he could not fulfill, though it was something he wanted more than anything he had ever wanted, even to the glory-filled death he once believed was his due. From behind him, the wind quickly swept him over the edge of a piece of raised roadway that no longer met its other side. As he dangled, he prayed.

"I know forgiveness will never be for me. But if I fall, even with how I heal, I will be unable to find her, perhaps until after that thing does. Don't punish her for my stupidity. Please! It isn't fair."

Awa Urashima was a man who needed a hand up, and that was exactly what he got. The hand belonged to a tall, lanky American-who somehow looked more American than any American he had ever seen.

"Let's back away from that ledge, fella. You all right?"

"I am. I thank you for aiding me. But I must find my wife."

"Now, ease up, you. You're almost shaking apart on me, here. Believe me, no matter how bad things get, falling apart is no more an option than giving up. You go and you find that little lady, and you take her and you kiss her. You tell yourself, you're not looking for a body, you're looking for that feisty number you fell for, who's gonna ride you for wearing that shirt or something. And that's how you know you love her, okay?"

Urashima envied this man his ebullience in the midst of all they saw.

"You should be a preacher."

The man chuckled.

"Now there's a laugh. No, all I do is a head up a rinky dink savings-and-loan back home. Now you okay, pal? Because my Missus and I are kind of on the run from-well, whatever in blazes that thing out there is."

"I am fine now, Mister-?"

"Oh, that's rude of me. My name is George-George Bailey. Good luck to you and Missus-?"

"Urashima. I am perhaps the unluckiest man you will ever meet, save for her presence in my life."

"You're unlucky? Heck, Friend-I've only put off taking this world tour my whole life, and now look at us!"

Bailey left to rejoin his wife, and somehow Urashima was not worried for them. As his dash around the ruins kept on, he heard a small voice-not his Hinata.

"Onii-Chan, my hand is burned. Please take me to see a Doctor?"

It was a little girl, and her right hand was indeed badly scarred.

"What sort of fire did this?"

"My Mama and Papa held my hand under running sink water as punishment for not learning my lessons well at school today. But there is something wrong with the water. Even in the dark, it gave off a light. Mama and Papa drank the water-but now they will not wake up."

Urashima held the tiny figure close, and began to look for anyone that looked official. One woman yelled from a distance.

"Hey, if that kid needs aid, the Americans have set up a medical camp down by the dock's edge! About two miles south of here!"

She was gone too fast to thank, or to explain why the Americans were there as medics but not as combatants. In fact, this was part of a major international diplomatic conflict, as various countries, allied and otherwise, tried to use this disaster to punish Japan for the pain and suffering of so many a decade ago. The end result was that US Destroyers were in Tokyo Bay, but boots on the ground and wings in the air was out of the question-for all the good they would have done, and that was not much. Again, Urashima knew or cared nothing of such weighty matters. He wanted to get the little girl some help, and he wanted to find his wife. That was all.

"Hey, you? That kid need help?"

The man asking had a Mediterranean look about him, and a large prominent nose.

"She said that her hand was soaked in poisoned water-I think it may be radioactive, from the monster's residue."

The large-nosed man looked about and settled his sights on a bald man.

"Hey, Doc? I think it may be radiation burns."

The doctor bid Urashima put the girl down on a table once meant for eating on.

"Let me be the judge of that, Max. Oh-God. Max-a sedative. Dilute it heavily."

"Diluted. That's about the only kind we got, Doctor Winchester."

"Well, that works out then, doesn't it? Sir, are you her father?"

Urashima felt he knew what was coming.

"No. I merely found her. She no longer has parents."

"I see. Klinger-pour some ether on your shirtsleeve. Have her breathe it in. Sir-please do me the great favor of holding this precious poppet's-other hand. Forgive me, everyone. But the flow of wounded, plus her condition, makes this brutally necessary."

Awa took the little one's hand-while the Doctor called Winchester took the other for all time. The man was good at his job, and the stump was already being cleaned as Awa finally teared up. Another man walked up, also a Doctor, and for the record, not his usual self at all.

"Klinger-Pierce and Margaret want you boiling as much water in as many pots as you can manage, till Potter tells you otherwise. I'm on bowels."

"Okay, Doctor Burns. Will do."

Urashima saw the other Doctor leave while Winchester bandaged his unfortunate little patient.

"That Doctor Burns-is one cool customer. So calm and collected."

Klinger and Winchester stared at Urashima, who could not know whereof he spoke. Winchester thought of something.

"Are you by chance a medic?"

"My wife and I run-or ran-a veterans' service hospital here in Tokyo. I am fully trained, including some time on American bases."

"Klinger-get him to Potter or Pierce, then see to your pots. We will need that boiling water, have no doubt."

As the two made their way, Urashima stopped Klinger.

"Please-Max is it? I am looking for my wife, Hinata. The disaster has separated us."

Klinger took the picture from Urashima, and then offered up one of his own.

"Your gal is almost as pretty as mine. You got any kids?"

Urashima noted that Klinger's wife was Korean, but offered no comment on that.

"No. We have wasted-a lot of time on a lot of things that now-no longer seem so important."

Urashima saw Klinger approach an older-looking man who looked like a leader, and would have, even if he were not surrounded by people seeking direction from him.

"Hey, Awa? C'mere! Colonel, this fella runs a local vets hospital. Small world, huh?"

The older man extended a hand with a firm grip.

"Seems more like a burning world. Howdy, Mister Urashima. Sherm Potter, Chief Admin, General Pershing Veterans General Hospital, based out of River Bend, Missouri, where Max here is my Chief Of Staff."

"Colonel, I didn't tell you his name."

"Didn't have to, Max. My Chief Surgeon spoke very well of a fella who looks just like you do in his description who ran a vets hospital in Tokyo. Is it still standing?"

Awa closed his eyes. Potter understood.

"Why can't all giant monsters be like Kong? Climb a building, instead of just wandering around with atomic halitosis? Sorry, son. Humor around here is a way of keeping from going batty. That thing out there makes me want to swim the Pacific, just to get back home and away from it."

"The Colonel does not need to apologize. I am willing to offer my services as a medic. Given that yours is one of a few medical facilities still intact, it makes sense for me to await my wife here."

"Good to have you on board then, son. Pierce?"

The man Potter called over worked through fifteen different charts before ever reaching them. He was that needed, and he was also known to Urashima.

"Awa?"

"Doctor Pierce. If it were any other day, I would be happy to see..."

Cries of pain cut off their direct reunion, and for the time remaining, conversations were kept to the patients. To Urashima, it seemed as if every man, woman and child in Tokyo passed through that small makeshift hospital, and this was less far from the truth than he knew. He held patients down, and he held their hands, and he hauled off those who could be saved, those who could not, and parts of those in-between. He held the remaining hand of the little girl who had called him Onii-Chan (he didn't bother to correct her usage) as the radiation finished the job it started.

None of the patients or passers-through was his Hinata.

"Get out of here, Urashima. Find her."

"But Doctor Pierce-"

"Hawkeye."

"Hawkeye-what of the patients?"

Pierce looked at a man with a moustache, seated sleeping in a chair, and in the next one was the other surgeon Awa had known, Trapper John McIntyre.

"Potter says the roads are now impassable. If the current plan to ditch Mister Lizard doesn't work, and that thing comes back out of the water again after this attack, we're heading for the hills. Nobody else is coming, Awa. Find Hinata, and give her my best."

A woman with blond hair and rugged pretty looks stepped up beside him.

"Give her our best. Hawkeye-you have to write your father. The mail ferry is leaving soon."

Pierce nodded as she walked off.

"That may just be the Missus one day."

Despite himself, Urashima chuckled.

"Would that be the very difficult Head Nurse you spoke of clashing with?"

Pierce shrugged.

"So? Now we just settle things differently. Now get going, and good luck."

As he tried to leave, Urashima was stopped once more.

"Walter, I have no time to talk."

Walter O'Reilly shook his head.

"But it's about Hinata."

Awa lit up.

"You know where she is?"

"Nah, I don't. But there's a fella six blocks down that does-"

Urashima said a hasty thanks as he ran off. The man once called 'Radar' gulped.

"-or at least he was there in my dream. Good luck, Buddy."

Whether O'Reilly truly possessed precognition or not, there was in fact a man waiting for Urashima at the spot he described.

"Urashima. Long time no see."

The only problem was, the man himself should not have been there.

"Fudo?"

Awa Urashima knew it was now past Christmas, and wondered if he would ever even see another Christmas, his special status aside. But standing there in front of him was his own personal Jacob Marley.

"Masi-San, why are you here?"

Fudo seemed to have found a confidence in his voice he never had in life.

"So you're not even going to question the rest of that? Fair enough. That thing out there is powered partly by the spirits of the vengeful war dead-on both sides. It's presence is affecting my world as much as it is yours. Hell, I had a date with a pretty American WAC who drowned off Guadalcanal when all this kicked up."

A man who was immortal and who walked with them (including, though he did not realize it, Walter O'Reilly himself) had no time to question the existence of ghosts. But he did have a question for one.

"If it is powered by such spirits, then how did you and your-date-escape being absorbed by it?"

"Easy. She drowned by swimming out too far, after the Americans secured the island. No war involvement. And I died after the peace treaty was signed. Besides, our little group of flyers is looked down upon by the other Kamikaze units. But we do alright. Kusama still cracks them up with the story of how he cracked up. Some British ghosts involved in wizardry actually asked him to do a tour of their old school. Now-follow me!"

Not sure why he would or, despite what he knew of the world, a tiny bit unsure that Fudo was real, Urashima did just that, cutting around corners, walking through wrecked buildings. While he ran, Awa saw a scene of primal horror. A woman was holding two children while cowering amidst the chaos.

_"It's all right, children-we'll be with your father soon."_

Urashima was just about to run to them when Fudo stopped him.

"Awa-San-they're already dead. It may take them a couple of weeks to move from that spot."

Urashima teared up.

"Masi-there is a little girl back at the medical facility where I was working. Can you help her to find her way? Her parents died before her."

Fudo smiled and shook his head.

"Awa Urashima-concerned for others. Kusama and the others won't believe this."

Dead man or no, Fudo then kicked Awa in the chest, and sent him tumbling down the street until he collided with another. The ghost faded as he shouted.

"Hurry, boy-she's waiting there for you!"

Wondering if said kick hadn't been yet another payment for being a jerk, Awa put his glasses back on. He spoke to the one he'd collided with.

"I am sorry, whoever you-"

"Idiot, I'm in a hurry-trying to find my-"

They looked at one another and found the strength to laugh, this before bear-hugs and soul-kisses were exchanged. Hinata stroked his hair, her smile making his entire life since 1945 worth it with just that.

"I found a hospital still standing near Midtown, and waited for you there."

He kissed her three more times before responding.

"Remember the doctors from the American medical unit? They were all here for some reason, and set up camp down by the docks. I waited for you there. Hinata, the hospital is gone. Our superiors say that they will not rebuild it."

Having seen to the needs of those men for ten years, Hinata was ready to move on.

"I must say the same for our apartment building. We officially have nothing except each other."

Awa recalled Doctor Pierce's comment about heading for the hills, and looked in the lands beyond Tokyo, in the far horizon.

"As a Kamikaze, I was granted my request of a small parcel of land in those mountains. It is still mine to claim. Even if it is just in a tent, we will find it and there we will stay."

She mocked him lightly.

"I am a strict wife. I expect you to build us a house. But before we leave-"

She rose up and cried out.

"Fates! You have thrown everything our way, and still, here we are! I love this fool, and no power on Earth can challenge such love!"

He grabbed her and looked about.

"I thought you were supposed to be the smarter of us! How can you tempt fate like that?"

She chuckled.

"What could happen to us that hasn't already?"

The women in the lives of the Urashima men, whatever their own clan origin, would historically prove brighter than the men they adored. However, in many respects, this only meant that, when they were stupid, it, while a far rarer occurrence, meant that they were so unbelievably stupid it made the fictional men of late 1990's American sitcoms seem like advanced sages. So it was for Hinata's future granddaughter-in-law, who trusted her sisters too much when their man was at stake, so for her daughter/granddaughter when she believed herself to be plain and ugly, and so it was for Hinata herself .

"Why-is the ground shaking?"

It wasn't just the ground. It was the air itself. Air that now felt like a blast furnace was breathing on them. It was.

"Hinata? Above-above you."

"How far above me?"

"About-thirty stories, I'd estimate."

It was the face of the beast. The monster that had risen after atomic explosions to again task and punish Japan, this for sins real and imagined, well-known and well-covered-up. Grey-green in color, it had huge dorsal fins following into a tail as long as the eye could see. It was a craggy apparition with breath that looked like superheated steam. Hinata tried not to scream.

"Awa-we should run. Fast."

Awa found it in him to also look this looming interloper over. The teeth in the mouth alone dwarfed the biggest men he'd ever met.

"We need longer legs."

She hopped on his back, and clung for dear life, and off he ran like the wind. But as he passed up and down over each rise in the street, the monster was still in sight, despite not having moved a centimeter.

"Hinata! I think that we will be out of his sight soon. We're..."

A beam from the monster's mouth leapt the distance between him and the pair fleeing his wrath. The ground behind them exploded, sending the awkward couple flying, up towards those very hills where Awa claimed he had some land. The thought occurred to both that immortality might still have some sort of limit, and that the property in question might become their gravesites.

Whatever primal satisfaction the creature derived from sending the 'pests' away faded quickly and was entirely forgotten as it turned and marched back towards the outskirts of Tokyo Bay, where its great bulk could be hidden. The destiny of the monster called Godzilla will now cease crossing paths with that of Awa and Hinata Urashima.

Literally cast out of Tokyo, the couple landed near a series of farms abandoned by people who didn't understand that they were safe in their area. The food, clothes and a small ax, they would repay and replace when they could-Hina made sure of that.

"Hina-I don't know how ideal this spot is. It's just a small area near to a mountain's summit. I wanted my ashes spread there-"

He chuckled.

"Hail the glorious war-hero."

She grabbed him, and held him close.

"When people ask me of my man's heroism, I will tell them of the day he faced Godzilla himself, and did not faint. Why are you so hard on yourself?"

"So that I never again fall into the trap of only caring about myself."

She kissed him.

"I have not seen that idiot in years. Now keep on up the mountain. Ummm-how exactly will we find it?"

"Easy. It has a marker to my glory. By that light, I should impale myself on it while walking over it."

The axe cut through some of the forest growth, but it was slow going, and breaks were frequent. On the third day, Awa was exhausted and Hina was beyond pushing him any further. While he slept, she whispered.

"Tokyo will rebuild-maybe then we can find an apartment-"

"Unacceptable, Kohai!"

As Awa had been for Fudo, so Hina was now for her predecessor, the former Head Nurse at the now-defunct veterans' hospital.

"Sem-pai?"

Old warnings about embracing the dead were shunted aside-after all, reasoned Hina, wasn't her own curse not to die?

"You said I would see you again. Is it like Awa said?"

"Hai. There are so many crossing over right now, the gates to my side are almost unguarded."

Hina bit down.

"How-many-of these crossovers will we see?"

The ghost was matter-of-fact with only a touch of sympathy in her voice.

"A city of eight million people will ultimately lose half that amount. As we speak, even the mighty daikaiju itself is dying. Hina, my time is short. Let me reveal the hidden treasure I once promised you, for your kindness as I passed."

Rousing Awa enough to have him walk with them, Hina and the ghost made turns and twists, ascending, sometimes descending. Awa kept on ahead as the two women embraced and said goodbye.

"Sempai owed me nothing. I owed you for not simply discarding me."

The woman-shade smiled.

"In another path, I was your stepmother, Hinata. In another path to come, you will hold me when I am new. Look for me then. I'll need a good name."

Hina looked away as she faded.

"Awa?"

A splash was heard on the other side of a tree line. Making her way, Hina saw her husband treading water.

"Is it cold?"

He looked up at her and smiled.

"Hinata, this is my place, it has my marker-and a natural onsen! This-is our place!"

She jumped in, and they both stripped down to let the heat dry their things-and to enjoy each other. In the afterglow of love, they looked at one another.

"A house with its own onsen. It seems a shame to keep it to ourselves."

Awa smiled, and wished he could see her without his glasses.

"We will need to feed ourselves. The onsen could be part of a business-"

His eyes lit up.

"Like-a bowling alley!"

Before her fist could meet his face, he shook his head.

"Or better yet-we could be innkeepers."

So, as millions of souls passed and a titan raged at its death, as the New Year of 1955 began, Hinata Urashima learned an important lesson about her man.

"You're not always an idiot, are you? So what will we call it?"

He looked in her eyes.

"Isn't it obvious? After all, who brought us here?"

She smiled-prematurely, as it turned out.

"We'll call it the Gojira-Sou!"

This time, fist met face.

And no, they did not call it the Gojira-Sou.

_**MARCH 26TH, 2002 - MAHATUAK, MASSACHUSSETTS **_

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, KEITH TERRENCE ULSTER, MANAGER, HILDA INN**

_I'll tell you plain, I was expecting a stranger bunch as they walked off the bus took them out from Boston International. Problem came, they weren't so strange. They were-us. Like we all might have been, had we been born in Japan. It was near to downright eerie, you know. Tirama Su's cousin and her friends would be a trip-the kind where you can't get there from here, but somehow you do._

_I can tell this Keitaro Urashima is the type who just pushed all obstacles aside. The kind of go-getter his women all flocked to first thing, and who never knew what a setback was, because no setback would dare get near him, wary of having its arse kicked all over Tokyo._

_I'm a wicked good judge of people like that._

Keith stopped jogging for a moment, and cleaned his glasses with a cloth.

"Blind without em'."

Keitaro accepted the offer of another cloth, and cleaned his.

"Yeah. Tell me about it."

Keith finally made a comment he had resisted making.

"I wish my Japanese were near as fair as your English. I could take you for a Californian."

Keitaro tried to be attentive. But the hardwoods that dominated so much of the structure of the Hilda Inn were in marked contrast to how the Hinata-Sou was constructed. Neither one was worse in his opinion, but the contrast was there. Even outdoors, this was visible.

"Many of my instructors studied in California, including my Sempai. I suppose it's bound to be picked up on. Keith-may I ask you a few questions?"

"Of course."

Kei looked about him.

"The weather here is magnificent. It's early spring, and yet I haven't seen such a day outside of Mid-May."

Keith was glad to answer this one.

"We catch-and don't ask me how it works-the same climate as Martha's Vineyard. The grandfolk found this place-and founded it-not long after a late 40's Nor'Easter-locals still call it for the Monster. Granma she basically ran it till way about three years ago. Then she up and decided it was her sworn duty to hit every curio shop in the Americas. That's where I came in."

Kei made a guess, one of several he would regret that day.

"You decided to enter Harvard?"

Keith shrugged.

"It had always been my dream-kind of an obsession, you might say. Then, one day-my little sister of all people-she opens her big little mouth and tells me I'm making myself miserable. Here I thought she never even noticed her big bro, while she's making those stop-motion movies-she's wicked talented at them. And she was right. I told the folks I wanted to join the family beverage making business. But wouldn't you know it, my Da and Ma are cool to that-say they wanted me for Harvard, too. So when Gram wants to make her trip, I bypass the whole argument and begin running this place-although when I started, it was the ladies here running me."

Kei felt awkward moving on from there, but a path one takes is not the path to be taken by all.

"You and they clashed? Their opinion of you was lower than you would have liked?"

They had resumed their jog at a good pace.

"Well, I was the outsider, and prone to open doors I really shouldn't have. Poor Sherry-I had to figure out a way to tell such a sweet young girl how pretty her nude body was without sounding like some sort of monster."

Kei felt he understood Keith-again he was wrong.

"Did you accomplish this?"

"I did-my Natalie helped me-that was the first night we made love, too. I guess our childhood love affair never did fade."

"You-knew Miss Natterman from childhood?"

Keith seemed a man almost born at peace.

"Well, I barely remembered her, and she didn't remember me at all. Me or Missy O'Timothy, that is-so we called Grandma Hilda to confirm, and sure enough."

Keitaro felt a dread in the pit of his stomach.

"How long-did all this take?-just curious."

Keith looked sheepish now.

"Well, I didn't make peace with all the ladies till the first month. Me and Natty didn't start in till the second month, and Grandma confirmed it all in the third month. That was also when she told us-Granpa used to be a guard at one of those terrible Japanese-American internment camps. Said he even used to be a creep. Hope that doesn't sour you on us. Say, Keitaro-ummm-Keitaro-San is it?"

Keitaro felt dizzy from merely hearing about Keith Ulster's pace.

"Keitaro is fine, Keith."

"Thanks. Heard tell you went to Molmol, where the Su girls are from. What's the place like?"

Keitaro sighed.

"I guess you could say-it was a real adventure. One we're not entirely anxious to repeat anytime soon, though we love Kaolla Su. She-means well, but crossed some lines there that revealed some other fault lines once we got home. I gained quite a bit there, but again, I might beg off if asked to once again go there."

"Heh. I was asking, because we almost went. But intuition told us that scamp Tirama was plotting something wicked big-everything's a game to that little Dickens, but she keeps things lively."

Keitaro kept up with Keith's pace in the physical world, but felt kilometers behind him in less tangible ones.

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, NATALIE RUTH NATTERMAN**

_Naru is such a pretty sort-and so blasted polite, I feel like a fiend. We just have so much in common-including our dense-headed fellas who we adore with a brainless passion. I would love to see Japan, feel the ancient vibe in the air. Nothing here is much older than four hundred, except for the Restricted Wing, and that's all gone now. Instead of a spa, these wacky folks have a volcanic spring bath-one her man is always invading, to hear the stories. What it must be, to not care if a man you like sees you in your altogether state. I'll bet you I learn a lot from her-maybe I can even get her to translate some of Keith's imported porn for me-heh._

_One thing's for certain-she never made her man doubt her love. Betcha those two all but sailed together in some kind of graceful dance._

Natty took the speed bag; Naru the heavy bag.

"You've got a lot of raw power going there."

Naru was amazed at the blur the speed bag had become; Natty never missed it while almost ignoring it.

"Thanks. It beats what I used to hit-namely Kei."

Natty nodded.

"Oh, Yah. Me too with Keith. We finally found the solution."

Naru smiled.

"So did we-and it's a lot more fun."

Natty shook her head at that.

"Mandatory psychiatric care was fun?"

Naru was almost bowled over as the heavy bag came back at her.

"What happened?"

Natty let her bag go as well.

"I was hitting Keith something awful. He's such a gentleman-wouldn't dream of hitting back, when it's a girl. But while Molly only pushed him over when he walked in on her or somethin'-I just kept on over any old thing. One day-I hit him when I walked in on him changing!"

Naru bit down before responding.

"Uh-wow."

"That's when, ya know, Sherry and the others insisted he call the police. The judge, she was a former domestic violence victim herself-said all my excuses stank of her late husband and every other slime she'd seen. Keith-he begged her for putting me in care, under a Canadian Ton of restrictions. I'm glad he did. I'd hate to live my life as some Wilma Flintstone psycho, thinking that sort of mess is alright. What did you mean, dear?"

Naru felt almost targeted by fate.

"We finally moved past all that forever and always-after our first time."

"Your first time together?"

"No-our-our-first time. Period."

"While you were having your period? Girlie, that's an invitation to..."

"No! Natty-it was both our first times-late last year."

Natty smiled.

"Oh, that's so sweet! Almost makes me wish Keith and I had waited-but then again, Auntie and Uncle were just such good teachers that way."

Naru felt blood vessels in her eyes she didn't know she had, and they were all close to bursting.

"You-him-his Aunt was his first time?"

Natty shook her head.

"Hayley is my Auntie-used to be kind of a House Mother here, keepin' us girls in line. Uncle Normie's an Ulster. I tease Auntie that she kind of wanted Keith since we were kids. Their little fling was just working out some old feelings. Kind of like me with her current hubby, my former college professor-Geology's his gig. Keeps it in all in the family!"

Natty laughed at her own joke, and Naru fought to laugh along. Fought being the operative word.

"So you're in Harvard but Keith isn't?"

"Yeah. It was another stumbling block 'twixt us-I couldn't see how a man who felt he had any worth could surrender that kind of dream. Mind you, I wasn't asking that he get in a year early, like me..."

Naru's mind flashed back to a few occasions of full public exposure by Kei when the two were at their worst. Him not looking at anything about where he was going. Her dress and undergarments all gone in one stroke with many onlookers. His mouth a mush of stuttering apologies and denials of intent. Her fists and feet pile-driving blind vengeance seekers.

And after what Natty had just said, she wished her blood pressure were now as low as it had been during those past incidents.

"You skipped your senior year of High School-and got into Harvard a year early?"

Natty shrugged.

"Lost some dear friends after that, though. They used to tease me horrible, and call me 'Natty-Never-Has-To-Study'."

Naru broke the heavy bag and the chain holding it with one blow. Both flew across the room and hit the nearby wall.

"Wow-that must have been really awkward for you."

Natty looked at the resulting mess. She never so much as reacted otherwise.

"Couldja start to clean that up, dear? I'll help ya in a minute."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, MOLLY TOMIKA AYERS-MARTIN**

_Motoko is an actual samurai. I mean, how cool is that? I'm qualified for the Big Games next year-I know I'll take at least one gold. But the people she competes against make those over-roided little boys and girls at the Olympics look like the pikers they all are-except for yours truly, of course. _

_Some cutesy folk have called me for being 'extra curious', so's I tell them to come out and just say it. Truth be told, it takes an extra strong woman to even have me looking that side of the camp. Most of our sisters are weak sisters, say God Bless Ye, but some like Motoko move with a grace and strength could wake the curiosity of the dead. I always have to be careful of how I move on another girl, though. Though I'd never play around with Tirama anymore than Keith would nail Sherry's sweet little behind-heh-me and him had a talk about all that once, had us dancing in the sheets fore we knew it. That's a thing I like about Keith-welll, another thing. He knows he and I were just a stop along the way, and we don't mind it. Girls always want something more, which is why I save my ammo for them that's worth it. But she might be well outta this mixed-breed's league._

_I can tell Motoko Aoyoma has never known so much as a moment of doubt._

Motoko turned the pages of the many clothes' catalogs.

"You are a model as well?"

Molly sipped her water bottle as she stripped down to her basic sweats.

"Feh-political correctness, is what it is. Never had any use for it."

"I don't understand."

Molly let traces of her natural brogue shine through. This wasn't entirely an accident.

"Well, I'll tell ya true. Land's End, Abercrombie & Fitch, that whole sort-they started gettin the crit that their catalogs were all of a cultural snowstorm."

Motoko's face showed she still wasn't following.

"I'm sorry."

"Well, a white-out, you see? Nobody who didn't look majorly Anglo-Saxon. So with that bug up their bums, all of a sudden anyway, they're all contacting me, because Old Molly is a Black Irish who really is Black and Irish. Yeah, that's right. I made my body into a lithe wonder so I could give a fig leaf to men who would just as happy if none of my ancestors ever came to this land. I-could take them all, grind them up and not come up with enough real meat to-"

She kicked out in a series of katas that impressed even Motoko, though the look of pure rage on her pretty face was not at all attractive.

"I'm sorry for all that, Motoko. But this here is the only place on Earth I've ever felt I belonged. These girls are my sisters-and Keith is like a brother with benefits. He was the first person to ever want me for me. Not scoring with the girl with the dual heritage, or the driven athlete. All he wanted, he told me, was my respect. But I don't respect him-I love him."

Motoko's eyes showed her surprise at that.

"I-perhaps we should begin our session now."

"Straight and to the point. I knew I liked you, Samurai Girl."

Motoko began with a simple outward sweep of her right arm, followed by a kick with the same side leg, and then a push forward with her left hand. As expected, Molly blocked all of these without slowing down.

"Did you ever find him to be a weakling?"

Molly tried to seize Motoko's extended left arm when the blocking was done, struck with force at her head, and almost kicked her in the solar plexus.

"Early on, I demanded to know how it was he could forego such as Harvard, and he told me true. I found it despicable, but so intriguing. I decided to put aside the usual blather and just deal with the fact of my love for the little fool. I've fought too hard at bettering my lot in life to be one of those idiots who goes about denying it or cursing my weakness for it."

Without warning, Motoko picked up the pace and Molly was hard-pressed to even see where some of the blows were coming from.

"So-that is quite a sage realization on your part. Probably the high point of your non-athletic life."

More gradually, but with much more control over her movements and power, Molly met the pace and gave back some as Motoko seemed to pull back.

"No. The high point outside my Olympic training has to be telling my better-than-thou, thinks and wishes she were a third parent, judgmental older sister about a thumb she can go climb, that is when she's not sitting pretty on it!"

Oddly, Molly found herself once more facing an opponent who amped up with no warning.

"Yes. Onee-Chans can be most difficult, at times. Mine liked to lecture me on my supposed fears."

Molly again met Motoko's pace, though they were both showing signs of sweat.

"Once again, I'm right there with ya. Before Keith-I was even afraid-can ya believe it-of guys! I was even afraid of frogs like our pet Bozo-ya know, the swelling up part?"

Motoko bravely moved forward onto ground she knew she would regret. Deeply regret.

"So when did you overcome this?"

The mine by her feet exploded.

"The night I let Keith take me upstairs-and every other stairs. The jerk had just fallen on me, taking my jumpsuit off, and all overheated I decided, I can kill his arse, or I can have him ride mine. Faltering between denial and temptation-I led myself into temptation."

Motoko felt her focus falter in waves.

"A hard choice to make."

"He sure w-ehh-it sure was. But, I figured, either take the chance or spend months if not years telling myself how revolted I was by him-and I couldn't see living that way. Can you?"

Motoko won the overall battle, but you could not tell it from her face afterwards.

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, MESSALINA ULRICA THERESA O'TIMOTHY**

_At first, I was a little leery of us all just 'trading off' with the obvious visitor-the one who most resembles us-boring, Keith. But ever since we were wee ones swinging on that jungle gym, Keith has had the good ideas, and if Natty backs him up instead of back-handing him, then all the arguing is done for._

_Mutsumi is awesome! It's like she doesn't even belong on this plane. While we're all playing with New Age, she's on the age a few after that-or maybe before them. She's in touch with most things, at peace with most of the rest, and trig enough to avoid whatever's left over from that._

_I really have to doubt anything here in dull old Mahatuak is gonna impress anyone that far out._

"It's very delicious-all of this made from one eggplant?"

Mutsumi was facing a huge plate of breaded fried eggplant and loving it.

Messalina 'Misty' O'Timothy smiled.

"The family hails from an island in a weird location, God love 'em. It's in the waters north of Chincoteague and Asoteague in Virginia, but it's really part of Jersey-we get paid as an auxiliary rescue service for the Cape May Ferry, should it come to that. Strange place, my home is. Eggplants grow twice again like watermelons in that soil."

Her chest gave a very free bounce.

"Girls and boys don't grow so bad either. Wanted to avoid the whole cousin thing, so I came back to this place, to find Keith and Natty. They're my happiness."

Mutsumi was notably ahead of her friends in terms of comfort at the same point in their visit. This would change.

"I know exactly how you feel."

Misty shook a finger in the air while smiling.

"I knew it! You and Kei and Naru, right?"

Mutsumi felt very much at peace with this stranger. Again, it would not last.

"Since we were very small children. I never feel happier than when I'm with them."

"Oh-wouldja mind a question, then? We Yankees love to pry, just a bit."

"Please, go right ahead."

Misty began to destroy Mutsumi's calm.

"Do you ever have any trouble keeping pace with the two of them in bed?"

Mutsumi was suddenly very grateful she hadn't drank any of her grape juice. Misty kept on.

"Because I sometimes find that getting myself between Keith and Natty, once they've started, is near to impossible."

Mutsumi came up with one that Kitsune herself would have applauded.

"Naru and Kei are a very private couple. Very private."

Misty nodded in understanding.

"Oh, I gotcha sure. After our Kitty offered to do a portrait of our couple making love, you'd think that she snapped a paparazzi on them, for how red their faces got."

Mutsumi tried to regain her footing, even if technically she was seated in the lotus position.

"Misty-I think I might want to meditate, right now."

The one who seemed clumsy but was most often at total peace with herself was now actually feeling awkward, and it was something she didn't like.

"Okay-but don't go too deep in. I usually lead the others in a pre-lunchtime session a little before lunch."

"You lead the others? How wonderful."

"Yeah. Well, I couldn't be one of those 'Oh Look At Me, I'm All Happy To Be Serene' types that exude it without at least trying to share what I have with the people I hold as family, ya know?"

"Yes, welllll-perhaps that sort of person only wants to be the calm center in what can be the chaotic lives of others."

Misty seemed to like shaking her head. Mutsumi was finding this less than endearing.

"Noper. Serenity is not worth a tinker's damn if it's not being exported. To not give my friends what I have would have been like-I don't know-"

Mutsumi made a mental prayer to all positive forces in the cosmos.

*_Please don't let her say what I think she's going to say.*_

"-I don't know-like ignoring my anemia and continuing to think that falling on poor Keith was cute or something. Used to bug poor Natty something fierce, till I gave in one week later and took the iron supplements-"

Mutsumi gave an arch glare to the heavens.

*_You do realize one of my best friends is the granddaughter of this realm's protector, right?*_

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, MATILDA FELICIA 'KITTY' CONNOR**

_I am so damned lucky. Mitsu Konno-heh I like coincidences-seems to be a typical Japanese go-getter. Business is life and war over there, and I'll bet Mitsu has never known an idle moment her entire life. Just the kick in the pants I need._

_Then again, I've heard it said that, in Japan, while High School is an all-out four-year-plus effort that rivals any Decathlon Molly's trained for, College is just one huge part-ay blast. But No. I laugh to even think of Mitsu with a drink in her hand, shaking that rack of hers, daring someone to 'pick a favorite boob'. No, I know the party animal of that bunch-Kei. It's always the ones with the glasses. I'll bet his sundae's whipped cream even has that Shinobu's maraschino. Probably bopped them all his first hour there, while they lovingly attended him._

_Except Mitsu. Like I say, obvious super-nerd, and I know people._

Mitsu looked over the Hilda Inn's books. They were amazingly, which is to say annoyingly, well-kept.

"So you never went dorm-only?"

Kitty punched some new numbers into their income tax program.

"Not really possible for us. Too many rooms, too much to heat and cool, and then add in property taxes. Grandma had us all helping out, but Keith cut off a wing for our own use. Less space, and it gets kind of cozy, but after we spent a week or so learning to knock on the bathroom door, everything was good. We service the rest of it, and the guests-hehe-sorry, but I think you know what I mean."

Mitsu closed the ledgers, and nodded.

"Looks like you've always been right on top of this."

Kitty chuckled.

"Not hardly. Grandma and Auntie were always on the verge of throwing my voluptuous butt out the pathway door. It took Keith-my bro tell ya true-to shake me up and make me a part of this business. Said I was wasting my time doing freelance art, and tryin' ta empty every micro-brewery in this great state-and a few of the major ones, to be sure."

Mitsu looked and saw an array of simply stunning paintings, the result of 'wasted time' on freelance art by Kitty Connor. Wincing inside, she gingerly approached a subject, not knowing it and something else had already been broached.

"So you two are just like sibs? Me and Kei are like that-he grew on us all pretty fast, though getting anyone besides Shinobu to admit it when we started was like pulling me off Kirin."

"Oh-I've heard that's good stuff. Kirin, I mean."

Mitsu shrugged.

"Most times, it's excellent. But this one batch I-eh-borrowed from Kei? It tasted like drain cleaner!"

An odd memory began to stir in Mitsu after saying that, but this was cut off by Kitty's continued talk.

"But yah, we are just like sibs-well, now anyway. It's not like that one night, though. Heh-if we were sibs then, Mom and Dad would be breaking out the paddles-not that we didn't do that too. Some kinda memory there. If there'd been a goat or a sheep about-I hope it could have run fast enough to save itself, poor thing. Our Tirama Su never did find out what happened to all her pineapples, though I think she susp-"

"You and Keith are lovers?"

"Ho No-just that one night, like most here. I mean, Natty's got him sewed onto her sleeve, and the kids are kids-but once we all warmed up to the sweet little geek, we really warmed up. Ya Know-"

Mitsu began a deeply felt mental plea.

_*Please Do Not Say It. Talk About My Clothes. Call Me Fat, And I'll Let You. Just don't say-what it is you're about to say. Mom, this better not be another test!*_

Kitty completed the unintended blow.

"-ya know, Keith, he was my first. Before him, I was one of those claptrap phony-baloney party girls that know how to rub up against a guy just enough to get her tab taken care of-without having to grab his tab, if ya know what I mean."

Mitsu sat and had such an utter look of complete devastation, Kitty walked over and hugged her.

"Huh? Excuse me?"

"Sorry, dear-ya just looked like ya needed a hug."

_*At least her rack isn't any larger-just her score.*_

"Thanks-I was just thinking about my family back home. Turns out, they're a very strange bunch."

Mitsu at last felt herself on solid ground. But as happened in her favorite Mel Brooks film, the quicksand was soon to reveal itself.

"Oh, do not seek to get me started on that one, Mitsu-Love-Ya. Turns out the whole blasted Connor clan is some mix of stuff from Ancient Celtic Mounds and Ancient Native American Mounds-seriously bizarro world, lemme tell ya. Heck-I'll show ya!"

_*No, Honey-I'll show you!*_

As she now expected from this ever-sorrier day, Mitsu saw Kitty begin to shape-shift, and decided to break out a form she called a bull wolf, though no such creature really existed.

_*Not Again!*_

Yes, Again. Mitsu had indeed changed into a ferocious, powerful wolf, a creature of danger and beauty, not unlike how her 'Bro' Kei still saw her, despite her doubts. But Kitty? No housecat, or even a tiger. She had become the grandest looking bald eagle with the largest wingspan ever seen outside of patriotic paintings. As it hovered, the nearly giant bird's beak moved and it looked down at its guest.

"Oh, that's such a cute one there, Mitsu! I'll have to add that to my list. I mean it now, that is a nice looking wolfie."

_*She can talk while transformed.*_

"And couldja try and keep those thoughts down? They're hard enough ta block out in my standard bod."

Kitty swooped out, flying free. Mitsu changed back, and bleary-eyed sat in front of the TV, this to watch cartoons.

"I used to like Jerry, not Tom."

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, CHARLOTTE ELEANOR MAYER-ULSTER**

_I still do that to myself, sometimes. Well, at least I'm just Sherry nowadays, not Sherry-Nell. I was such a baby when I first came here. _

_I can't believe Shinobu. Is anyone really that freaking nice? I think she's what they call a YummyTummy Nabisco, or somesuch. Anyway, we both are wizard cooks, though since the Japanese eat sushi 24-7, I don't see what it is she's cooking. I mean, if I could eat sushi that often, why would you cook at all? As for me, ya know? But even so, we are going to be the best buds ever to cross the Arctic Ocean, I can tell. We'll be like Hakuna Nakama-I think that's what they call it. Or was that from Lion King?_

Shinobu blushed as she showed Sherry the picture of Arlo in his uniform.

"Ohhh-quite the hunky fella, huh?"

"I like to think so."

"Shinobu-I'm so sorry."

"Ummm-whatever for, Sherry?"

Sherry looked down.

"I'm sorry that my culture reached in and closed so many real Japanese restaurants, that all your boyfriend could find was work in a Johnny Rocket's. I mean, could we as a people be any more intrusive, forcing our values down your throats?"

Shinobu began to feel a confusion build the likes of which she had not felt since Molmol. Since she didn't care for how that went, she moved to end that part of the conversation.

"I-forgive you, of course. So-what's your favorite dish to cook?"

Sherry looked away.

"Cooking isn't as much fun as it used to be-since-since I started in."

Shinobu's concern rose.

"Started in doing what?"

Sherry pointed toward a display wall packed to the edges with a dizzying array of ribbons, plaques, and shelving units of various kinds with large and ornate trophies, including five shaped like golden chef's hats.

"I mean, shouldn't cooking be about more than just waltzing through every blasted competition they put up? 'Oh, here comes Sherry Mayer, guess this thing is settled?' I used to have to think about the whys, the wherefores, and the hows, and the ingredients, but now? I can do things with kids' breakfast cereals ya wouldn't believe. Where's the joy if you always win? Poor Keith says we may have to open up a third storage unit, and I don't want to ask my folks to give up another one they could be renting out."

Shinobu was about to let go with a politely phrased but distinctly sarcastic response when she saw something.

"That trophy-is a silver-tailed puffer fish. You know how to cook Blow Fish?"

She nodded.

"They said they couldn't give me the gold-tailed, because of me being a foreigner. It's okay. Here in New England, we have the same law about Baked Beans. Some things are just held sacred, sure. Down Jersey way, you can't be in a pork roll cook-off or an Italian Hot Dog contest without permission from The Boss."

Shinobu nervously thought of the Mafia and Yakuza.

"Mob Boss?"

"Nah. Bruce Springsteen. Used ta be Mister Sinatra. Frankie Valli if one of them's outta state. Those Jersey folk-they love their crooners."

Shinobu found herself unsure as to whether this was some kind of odd truth, or more of Sherry's seeming fountain of unwitting misinformation, so she changed the subject.

"Has Keith been as positive an influence in your life as Kei has been in mine?"

"Oh, yah-as soon as I got over him, that is. I useta have quite the crush on Old Keith."

Finally, common ground, thought Shinobu.

"I'm not even sure I have gotten over Kei. I'm really not sure if I ever will."

Sherry smiled.

"A good fella will do that to ya, and there aren't that many. But, hey, Natty sure got herself one, right? And isn't that all that counts?"

Sherry's sudden harsh uptake in tone gave away so much, she didn't bother denying it to Shinobu.

"I knew he wasn't going to do a thirteen-year-old girl. But I held on for just the longest time-almost the whole three months before he and Natty hooked up."

Shinobu now walked with her sisters and sempai in awkwardness.

"That's-really a long time."

"Say it true. To make matters worse, we all hooked up with this hare-brained scheme to get the two of them apart, once we arrived on Misty's home island."

"You know, I've seen maps of New Jersey and if there were such an island-"

Sherry kept on right past her.

"Only I don't know what the hey's goin' on from one scheme to the next. At some point, they tell me to keep Keith locked up while they talk to Natty, but it all gets to be a muddle. So I send him in to this anteroom in the big house, and I'm supposed ta take this big soup pot and smash him over the head with it..."

Shinobu reached out her hand, recalling how awful she felt that the first and really only deliberate blow she'd ever struck Kei was in such a circumstance, an ambush by the only one left he really trusted in that insanity. She was prepared to give Sherry what comfort she had.

"...but I just point him to where they really have Natty. I mean, what kind of little stalker witch would I have to be to prove my love for the guy by attacking him? I thought about talking to him about being his secret girlfriend on the sly, but same thing. I had to let go of what wasn't mine and wasn't ever gonna be mine. I was angry as sin with Misty for hosting that whole sorry soiree..."

Ever the optimist, Shinobu prepared to reach out again.

"...so's I avoided her till I calmed down some, and now we're chums again. Either that, or she wasn't listening when I vented on her-sure she meditates a lot."

Shinobu swore that the next reaching out would be for Sherry's throat.

"So you and Keith are good now?"

"Oh, yeah. He even likes when I tell him dirty jokes I found here and there. Kitty suggested 'em as a way of getting over my squeamishness. I useta almost faint if you so much as mentioned any of the big P-words, ya know?"

*_I understand, now. The skillet missed Sempai's head and I hit myself with it instead-and this is Hell. Please let it be Hell. This-isn't Hell, is it?*_

"Well, Sherry-I think I better go and do some of my laundry. Could you show me your laundry room?"

"Oh, Heck-why use that rinky-dink thing? Here's a coupon for ya-just head down to my dry cleaning concession here on the grounds. The girls will set you up nicely."

Shinobu had seen her last line crossed.

"You run-a dry cleaning business?"

Sherry nodded and smiled, not catching the fury building on her counterpart's face. Son-Gokou himself could not have had a more clueless smile.

"Pays my way here, saves funds up for when I head on to Harvard-should take care of whatever the scholarships don't."

Shinobu withdrew then, because the things she wanted to do to Sherry were not at all Shinobu-like, and she felt as though she'd used up that quota during her first date with Arlo.

"Hey, where ya goin'? I got homemade chocolate fudge-best in five counties, two years running!"

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, ARCHDUCHESS TIRAMA SU OF MOLMOL AND MAHATUAK**

_At first, I wasn't sure about Kaolla visiting here. She's always been so mellow and laid back, it can feel like she's not moving at all. _

_I am so incredibly anxious to learn how Japanese she's become. When we were both sent away, I was envious that she got to do reconnaissance on the elder of the two cultures. We both disagreed with Grandfather Iwil's edict to avoid China-but he is so easily offended when it comes to counterfeiting our nation's currency, and the Ambassador's answers did not satisfy him. Plus, Aunt Caunter foresaw much of their vast economic power being diverted by savage environmental concerns before 2020. Then again, reports have them on the cutting edge of some 'green' tech, so we'll see._

_I know that, just like myself, meek mild little Kaolla has become part and parcel a foremost example of her host culture._

_Or more accurately, she had better be._

The Princess looked quizzically at her cousin.

"What happened to your voice?"

Tirama brushed her hair, now streaked with silver as well, and smiled.

"Isn't it great? It took me over a year to get rid of that 'greenhorn' accent. But I'm still working on it."

Kaolla Su began to feel like some did when having a conversation with her, not too long ago.

"What happened to your hair?"

"Oh, that? People thought I dyed it anyway, to have such light hair against skin like ours. The silver streaks make it all look like something I did, rather than an oddity of birth."

"That's not an oddity, Tirama-that's you."

Tirama never turned to look back at her cousin.

"I came here to be a part of this place, Kaolla. Not to stand out."

Sensing the awkwardness, Tirama changed the subject.

"I heard your brother married a girl from Paraklese?"

Kaolla nodded.

"Nyamo-just don't bring it up around Shinobu. See, Lambda looks like Kei, and Nyamo looks like Shinobu, and it kind of rubs her raw."

Tirama gave an arch look at her cousin.

"So these near-duplicates just exist and hook up? What, do you live in a comic book?"

"No-I live at The Hinata-Sou."

Tirama could have her pride in 'normalizing', if she wanted, but Kaolla drew the line at perceived slights against her Japanese family, however extended that definition became.

"Ho-kay. Take a chill pill. If I were as tense as you, I would never have made the varsity cheerleading squad."

Kaolla lit up, and also leaped up.

"Oh, I love cheer girls! Can I join while I'm here?"

"Kaolla-Cheering isn't just jumping up and down in the air like a little fool. It's a precision sport, demanding on every level. Heh-you jump up like that, you're liable to kick someone in the head."

The girl who once understood very little-or at least didn't understand certain things-now understood very well that she was being talked down to. She wished she had no such understanding.

"Who are you closest to here?"

Tirama seemed to have what Molmolians locally and ethnically referred to as a bug up her ass.

"Why would I be closer to any one friend than to another? Suppose I did that, but that one has some sort of anal obsessive compulsive irrational fear or hatred? I am close to everyone here, so that I can learn equally well from all of them."

Kaolla Su could be accused of being rambunctious. It would be harder to accuse her of being a fool.

"My Onee-Chan used to hate and fear men. My Onii-Chan used to be a pile of nerves and doubt. Naru was afraid of anything that could break her stride-badly afraid that she would be weak again like she was as a child. Kitsune-Mitsu-threw an eternal party to hide her fear, and Shinobu drew up marriage plans that she would sit and fear after doing so. Mutsumi-I don't know, but any of us-"

"Is this going to go on all day?"

Kaolla Su arced into the air, and using the stumbling method that had seen Kei's face in many a bosom, she got up in her cousin's face.

"I WILL TAKE ANY OF US OVER YOU, MY SO-CALLED BLOOD FAMILY!"

She then jumped up, and foot-pawed Tirama's head.

"See? I only kick when I want to-"

She turned to leave.

"-and only the people I love."

The lithe princess vaulted the railing and landed downstairs without a sound. She made her way outside, as far from the Hilda Inn as she could get in a hurry.

"All of you?"

Waiting past a certain point was her family, and she was never happier to see them. Oddly, she first ran to embrace Shinobu.

"I'm so sorry-I did it again."

Shinobu wiped her friend's tears away.

"You're sorry for what? You didn't do anything."

"No! I'm responsible for another bad trip."

Shinobu sat her down and held her.

"No! You only suggested we come here. Su, none of the things that applied in or after Molmol mean anything here. This was just-I don't know what this was, and I'm not sure that I want to know."

Each one in turn told of their bad encounter. None seemed to know what Shinobu asked of either.

Finally, Mitsu or Kitsune, she shrugged.

"I know what this was. We, people, sisters and bro-were outclassed. Royally outclassed. Not by strangers, per se, but by people who are so much us my head hurts. And I mean the kind of hurts I used to earn by way of strong rice byproduct."

Motoko looked up.

"It was as though every decision and every realization and every choice I spent years making, tearing out my soul and sorting out my heart, she made as a casual afterthought before beginning her next kata. She actually came out and admitted that Keith accidentally stripping her was a turn-on!"

Kei looked over.

"It-was?"

Motoko smiled and cupped his cheek.

"I'm over you, my sweet."

Naru ferociously fought off a 'Yeah Right' before picking up her end.

"I was proud of myself. I was in a growth stage. I had chosen my heart, and kept my dream-and I only hit when this pretty moron reallllly has it coming-and even then I try to keep it proportionate. I must have ran away as many times as him-and I still had to figure out that I broke my sisters' hearts. They tell me I'm strong, but that all took everything I had. Natty The Wonder Yank does it in three-stinking-months."

Shinobu continued to hold the shattered Su as she added in.

"She made falling in love and getting past it sound as easy as-PIE. Well, it wasn't for me. It involved me acting like a little fool : worried that he saw my boobs; worried that they weren't big enough for him to notice; wanting to tell my sisters to stop abusing him; wanting to be in on it all, all the while fighting off the knowledge that he wasn't going to choose me, till the reality in my face made me crazy."

She stopped, and a new look dawned on her face.

"You know what? I wouldn't trade any of it. Not a single face in my chest, not a single nervous stupidity, not a single moment worried that he'd take my virginity or worried that he wouldn't want it. Not a single meal slaved over just to see this guy who I knew was a goofball smile, because I knew I was a goofball too, and that made me feel so good, to be in something with him. If Su's time machine had a careful edit function, I still wouldn't trade so much as a second-"

She looked at Kei.

"-except for kicking you in the balls, Sempai. That one I'd amend."

Mutsumi seemed set to add some manner of cosmic insight.

"I-really hate these people and this place, and I want to go home."

Kei stood up.

"Maybe we will. But ladies-you're talking to a guy who spent most of his life being outclassed in most things. Not always by huge margins, but still pretty uniformly. The thing to do when you feel this rotten is to go tell those who so badly outclassed you just that. After that, the burden is on them. If they are gracious, or if they gloat-now it's their problem. They told us their stories, and then we told them ours, and I guess theirs won. Big deal. Up against Grandma maybe hating me-it doesn't even rate."

He grabbed up the princess and kissed her.

"I will demand that your cousin apologize. The way she acted is uncalled for."

Naru joined in a mutual hug of Kaolla Su. She asked her man a question.

"Kei? Are all Americans like this?"

"Eh-some of them aren't as polite as most of this bunch acts-but most are also wonderfully Human, as opposed to the colony of winged gods we happened upon."

Mitsu glared.

"Hey-hey-I have family with wings! They're good people."

Kei lead the way as they trudged back to the Hilda Inn. Part of this was out of deference and love to their brother, their leader, their man.

Part of this was because they really did not want to go back to the Hilda Inn.

Motoko picked it up first.

"What's that noise? This place is usually so quiet."

As they got closer, Su cocked her ear.

"I think someone is arguing. I wonder who it is?"

Shinobu almost felt the vibrations through the ground.

"Sounds like all of them. Sempais?"

Kei and Naru looked at one another in a bit of fear that a bad vacation was once more about to get even worse. Mitsu stepped forward.

"If I'm gonna really be Ryobo-that means I gotta take the risks sometimes-I'll go in."

A very pretty woman with a chest size somewhere between Mitsu and Mutsumi stepped forward. She was fair skinned with red hair cut somewhat short, and she showed signs of a late stages pregnancy. She put out a cigarette and pointed at Kei.

"Are you the fiends as put my nieces and nephew into such a sorry state?"

**PRIVATE JOURNAL, HAYLEY VERONICA NATTERMAN-ULSTER**

_When Tirama called me with tears apparent in her voice, I came just as fast as I could, the baby aside. I can never stop being their overseer, nor would I want such. Did I see all this coming? I feel like I should have. After last year, things could never be the same again, and this place, this lovely family that came together so well so fast might not endure when all that sank in._

_The bunch from Japan was a trip. I could scarcely believe how much like my own they are. One of them had her dukes up, ready to clobber me for my words. Another had a sword drawn. The other girls looked the sort you'd underestimate and be sorry for it. But the one called Kei, looking skinny and haggard, was still their leader. Again, it was like Keith from Japan-only-only a bit more sure-footed, like he'd stumbled so often and so hard he just knew where not to step. He explained what went on, so far as he and they knew it. Once I heard a few of their stories, I saw clear what had started this whole mess. But as I was to start with the cleaning, my own little mess showed up._

"Mom! How long are you gonna be with these dorks?"

Hayley bid her visitors wait while she addressed the impatient one.

"Sakura Kathleen Mifune Ulster! Did I or did I not tell you to wait in the car with your father?"

At this point, no one seemed surprised that Hayley's step-daughter was of Japanese origin.

"My Dad? Hah! He's like the most cautious driver in the known universe. You know geologists-has to check out every square inch before he parks, and then make two tons of notes as he does. I'll be at my Bat Mitzvah before he's ready."

"Well, just keep quiet and you can stay. Don't make me send you on a field expedition with your Da."

"Geez! That's rough."

Sakura looked over at her visitors.

"Am I supposed to like, bow to you or something?"

"Get inside and see to Tirama, you great mouthed beast!"

"Oh, yeah-Tirama. Miss 'I'm from a mystic island kingdom but I'm so not an immigrant'. Mom, she's become impossible to deal with."

Hayley leaned down.

"It's now she most needs you. Will you turn her away in this state?"

Obviously, that wasn't in the girl, so inside she went. Hayley pointed the same to her visitors.

"Let's go. It's not you that started this, but you're part of where it has to end up."

The children of Hinata Urashima, however removed and exiled, showed their courage and as one entered what sounded like a raucous throw-down. Hayley, who looked a bit like an Amazon, now really looked it as she tossed her wayward children about, breaking off said arguments in mid-tirade.

"You're not the one that almost went to jail! You're not the one who almost killed the guy she-whoa!"

"No! I provoked the firestorm when I moved in here, and didn't know how to knock on a door or ask a question, and I'm the one who was so weak, he had to be with everyone except Sherry and Tirama-Hey!"

"Maintain the pace, Molly! Keep up the modeling, Molly! Better luck for 2004, Molly! I don't need the pressure, I didn't ask for...aahhh!"

"You still have this debt-nope, still another that we didn't bother to bring up! Guess you're not a party girl much anymore, huh, Kitty? Do you honestly think all those endless cutesy remarks are at all endearing? I can't take-leggo!"

"Show us how to be at peace. Oh-not tonight, Misty Love-we'll indulge our threesome fantasies on you another night. Oh-and how many Boob-Eggplant jokes do you think are actually funny? You all start from the presum-watch it!"

"Me? I've tried to get over him. I'm barely sixteen, and I feel like the only really great love I ever had or ever will have sailed past me without a thought. I don't have the raging body or personality, so I tried to be nice. I fed and clothed you. I set up a business to impress you, Keith Ulster, but you are CLUELESS! Why I-Auntie, Stop!"

"I'm the foreigner, the outsider. But do you lot have any idea how many times I had to tell my classmates that you are my greenhorn relatives from the Old Country? I don't know even know where Old Country is! Could you be any more embarassing? No, AUNTIE-I won't stop."

Hayley shook her head.

"You will. You will stop arguing now, Tirama Su."

"And why would I?"

Hayley sighed.

"Because everyone else is sitting down, my love. You're arguing with yourself alone."

Tirama looked about. She tried to make a dismissive shrug.

"That only means I won."

Hayley sat her down as well. Kei asked Shinobu something.

"Did you bring-the hat?"

Shinobu smiled, and so did Naru as she caught on.

"Yeah, they're gonna need it."

Hayley looked both more and less frightening with her pregnant stomach as she glared at her former charges. She placed mild slaps on each one's cheek as she moved.

"That-is for the boy who said he could handle having been too hormonal at first with girls now like his own sisters."

"That is for my own blood-niece, who I first warned of her temper and then warned not to dwell too long on the lessons that temper showed to her."

"That is for the girl who's poised to take the Olympic Gold one day-only the dream of every child in a school gymnasium-and who always acts like she's been cheated or dismissed."

"That is for a girl who is no airhead, but insists on acting like it, the better to hide her pain at her supposed boyfriend choosing her girlfriend instead."

"That is for someone who is long past her early mistakes and slackery, but looks for digs and slights in harmless remarks. You have this messy business of ours in the black and the pink, woman. You can have a wee dram without it all falling apart now."

Sherry she slapped on the hand. Then she grabbed it.

"He is a lovable sort. I'm a grown woman who could have been arrested over just how lovable he is. So don't expect you'll scrape him off so easily. And maybe you're cooking instead of eating-but in psychology, sublimating is sublimating. I have a college roommate who's a degree in the subject-Emily, I think her name is. Lives in Tokyo now with some Chicago folk."

The Hinata-Sou residents let that one slide right on by.

Finally, Tirama was cornered.

"You. What gave you the idea that you had to surrender your essential self to fit in around here? Fool-none of us fits in around here. We are all foreigners and freaks. I'm half-Jewish, half-Irish, and I honestly don't know which side fights better and which side moans better. Why did you give your cousin-who you invited here-such a hard time?"

Tirama looked up at her.

"Well, she did cause those FBI men to visit me."

Kaolla Su looked stunned.

"I did?"

Tirama nodded.

"You violated Japanese sovereignty in almost every way there was last year. They asked me-me-if I had plans to unlawfully hold my friends and impress them into marital servitude."

Molly raised a finger.

"You did have those plans. We just lucked into finding them on your laptop-when you left it on and unlocked in the living room-after chuckling a lot while looking at each of us."

Hayley was looking impatient.

"The truth now, Duchess."

Tirama pointed at Kaolla.

"Their Grandma turned up alive and well-ours never will!"

A look of shocked recognition fell over the residents of Hilda Inn. For those of the Hinata-Sou, understanding was only just beginning. Kei looked at Keith.

"September 11th?"

Keith shook his head.

"American Airlines Flight 587 out of JFK, just two months later. Not as many know of it. It wasn't terror. It crashed near Queens, New York. Grandma was on her way to the Dominican Republic. Always after curios. They found her-mostly intact. The funeral home didn't have to do-too much work, praise the Lord."

Natty held her man as he began to choke up, and then spoke for him.

"She hadn't lived here for awhile. But she was this place. She was its heart."

Molly had her eyes clamped shut.

"For the first time in my life, I wasn't an icon, a champion or an example. Just a teenage girl. That's all she gave me. It was enough."

Misty had the look of her name.

"I fell off that jungle gym so many times. Then she brought Keith out, and he showed me how to play on it, and we both helped Natty past her hard times-and they were all our good times."

Kitty actually managed a smile.

"I got more second chances from her than from a soft-hearted parole officer. I kept blowing them, but for her, I actually felt bad when I did. That was why I jumped the chance Keith offered me-not to mention jumping Keith."

Sherry looked at Keith as well.

"You are wonderful. But I have to admit, part of your appeal was thinking that I could take this most wonderful woman outside Mrs. Claus and make her my for-real Grandma. Which was stupid, because she already was."

Tirama made a confession that made her cousin's head spin.

"I never felt at home in Molmol. Too much presumption on peoples' lives on all levels. When I heard there was a place that had a written guarantee of what you can and can't do-I had to come, and this lovely person looking for antiques showed me the places where this land was born. I was reborn then, too. Like Sherry said-she was Grandma."

If most of the Hinata-Sou's residents were stunned into quiet, the warrior in Motoko still sought to end the conflict permanently.

"We grieve with you, and wish that we could share our miracle. But I fail to see how our presence provoked these house-sundering arguments."

Molly rose and looked at her.

"What? How can you not see that? Are you blind, deaf and dumb?"

Natty squinted and then put on a pair of glasses.

"You come in here, and talk the talk you did, and you don't get it?"

Keith sobered up from his loss.

"Really? You don't get what your stories ripped open in us?"

Sherry shrugged at Shinobu.

"You can't figure this out? And you, a Ninja?"

Shinobu began to get her headache back.

"That's-another Shinobu. Don't bring her up again."

Mitsu bit down and whistled.

"Before we travel the whole circuit again-yes, we don't get it. So tell us."

Mitsu's intentions to break the chain aside, it was Kitty who answered.

"You. Mitsu, ya kept true to yourself till you were good and ready to change. I changed into a scared little rabbit-in one case literally!"

Keith seized back his mantle of leadership.

"You endured all the rejection and misery, Kei. This is supposed to be the land of dreams, but when the going got tough on mine, all it took was a few words to put me off the vows of a lifetime."

Misty hugged Mutsumi.

"I'm with my friends in their room some nights. But I feel like an appendage. Out of fear of loneliness, I can't stop. And I get so upset when the others do, I feel like I have to show them how to calm themselves, or I can't keep mine. You? You accept reality, rather than trying to empty the ocean with a bucket."

Natty sat down.

"Hitting is never good. But fighting for your love? Taking time to figure it all out? Really getting in there and making damned sure this is the one? It wasn't any court-order that changed me. It was fear that he could be the one and I would miss the boat by doing the hard work a relationship is supposed to be all about. That's you, Naru. Hearing you, I felt like nothing."

Molly was next again.

"Do I need to say it? An Olympian puts on a show. A spectacle. You are a samurai. Almost a creature of legend-except, ya know, for the many thousands of samurai that really did and do exist. Even you and Kei. That was a genuine love affair, with denial and wonder and realization. Much as I adore Keith, we were like 'Both Naked-Might As Well'."

Sherry was not the last of all, but the last in this particular mass confessional.

"I still love Keith. I still hate him for being too nice a guy to use a kid with a crush. So I tried to be mature and rational and give him up. But love isn't mature or rational, and you are not supposed to be understanding when it doesn't go your way. You kept on your man, Shinobu, till the ledge collapsed and your fingers came off the edge. That took guts I never had. When I realized that, it was almost as bad as the time I came in second for Miss Teen America, or when I failed to win First With Honors on The Philly Cream Cheese Recipe Contest, or-"

Tirama covered her friend's mouth, and looked at Su.

"I'm sorry. We used to be so much like each other, and now I want something different so badly, it made me resent you for who I used to be-and who I maybe still am. When you wrote me about your Grandma-I broke inside."

Keith summed up for his friends, his (for the most part) lovers, and definitely his family.

"We all felt like we were hopelessly outclassed by these amazing people from across the way, who weren't afraid to get rough and tumble with their lives and emotions. Hearing about the struggle you put up to get all you have, we couldn't help but feel like typical lazy Americans, handed all we have on a silver platter, and still moaning for more. It's like they say in the East : It's the journey, not the destination."

Kei looked to each of his sisters for strength before responding.

"We don't feel at all superior. In fact, we thought of you as the better ones. You speak of all our struggles, and they have strengthened us. But it looks from our eyes like you had the common sense to cut through much of the stupidity we subjected ourselves to. You may laud our culture, and we appreciate that, but there is such a thing as overly complicating what should be simple and clear."

Hayley looked at the two groups and rolled her eyes.

"One worried about working too hard, the other about not working hard enough. Take it from a girl who's been around, folks. How you get there matters, but if it's a good thing you found when you got there, then maybe the terms of that journey matter less than normal. Speaking of which-"

"I finished parking the car, honey. And-I think I discovered meteor dust in the second sub-strata!"

Kei turned to look at Norman Sean Ulster, Keith's Uncle and Hayley's husband. Naru did not.

"Kei-Chan?"

"Yes?"

"What does he look like?"

"Do you really want to know?"

Naru nodded.

"Yeah. Better just tell me."

"He looks like-an American version of Seta-with a goatee."

Naru looked, confirmed this, and then jumped into her man's arms.

"Our shower has a steam option, right?"

He smiled, and they looked at Natty and Keith.

"You two for your room?"

Natty grabbed her coat.

"Nope-this dope, who runs a very successful business, now wants to apply to my alma mater."

Keith shrugged as he put on his jacket.

"I have to know. I have to. By the way, you two-its Pot Roast night. Don't get too into each other!"

Mitsu stopped the two on their way up.

"Kei-Uhh-Kitty says there's this college bar with really cute guys nearby-"

Both he and Naru gave their friend some cash.

"When Grandma fired me, my term as manager ended-and so did your debt."

She smiled, pecked them both on the cheek, and prepared to unleash some of her inner Kitsune.

In the distance, Molly showed Motoko a prized pugilist's combat stick signed by a variety of boxing champions, and decided to begin to spar in that fashion. Misty talked to Mutsumi.

"So I was going to take the trains to Atlantic City and then fly out to visit my folks this weekend. They'd love you. Wanna come?"

Mutsumi smiled.

"I would. But-ahhhh-are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Because-based on satellite scans and my knowledge of American geography-I'm pretty sure your island doesn't actually exist."

Misty shrugged.

"What's your point?"

After offering up gushing praise of her wall of trophies, Shinobu had calmed Sherry enough for them to just talk.

"I think I might have my own Arlo-works at a Chinese place-always gives me extra sweet and sour pork. I still want us to exchange recipes."

Shinobu nodded.

"Teach me blowfish. Arlo refuses. And I have a special recipe for Beef Barley we call Hinata Soup."

"Sounds Great! And I'll teach you about the history of Mahatuak."

Shinobu moved in for the kill.

"And I-will teach you all about Japan."

Sherry shook her head.

"I know all about Japan. Like when you went to war with Rene Russo."

Shinobu forced a smile.

"I-may-still have one or two things to show you. Just- a-few-things. We'll start with 500 AD and go from there."

"Cool!"

Tirama set the VCR in the living room. She prepared to leave with Kaolla, a promise to hit every eatery and snack bar in the area driving their renewed relationship.

"What are you recording?"

"Oh, our favorite episode of Seinfeld is re-running tonight. It's the one where Elaine starts hanging out with three guys who are like Bizarro versions of Jerry, George and Kramer."

Kaolla Su was lost.

"Seinfeld? What's it about?"

"Ummm...Nothing."

Kaolla Su turned and stormed out.

"I'll be waiting outside. If you don't want to tell me what's it about, then just say so!"

Tirama watched her cousin leave, then shook her head.

"What is up with her?"

_**THE HINATA-SOU**_

She picked up the picture. The young man, surrounded by his loving-though at that time abusive-sisters on his first anniversary as manager.

"Mom-Call Him."

The girl who was both her daughter and her granddaughter was only weeks away from bearing her granddaughter/ great-granddaughter. But her tongue never softened.

"I-was just organizing all these pictures. Seems he wasted a lot of time taking them."

"Mom-Just Call Him."

"Why would I call my ex-employee? What would I have to say to someone like him?"

Haruka put her hand down on the table.

"How about-'Grandson, I'm sorry for acting like a mopey fool when you saved my life from certain death' for starters? How about 'Kei, I love you and I want you here as our family's next generation is born' as a follow-up?"

"How about my daughter learns her place, which I thought I taught her long ago and far away?"

Haruka pulled out a cigarette, which Sarah snatched away before she could blink-just as she had been told to do.

"Mom-you never let me or anyone else mope unchecked for as long as you have since Kei brought you back. I'd respect you in any tradition. I respect you too much to see you stay like this."

Exhausted by yet another failed effort to change Hina's mind, Haruka bid Sarah keep an eye on her. Sarah did as she was asked, but also placed a phone call.

"Is this the Hilda Inn in Mahatuak, Massachusetts? Great. Can I speak to one of your guests, a Kaolla Su? Oh? Okay. Well, is my cousin, Keitaro Urashima-humping Naru? Yeah, that's him. Yeah, but he's actually nice and kind of funny-cool. Who's this? Sakura? My name's Sarah."

Before starting to talk in earnest, Sarah briefly wondered if she and the other girl had anything in common.

_**SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001**_

The man who had dropped into the plane tried to handle the small craft. After all, his wealthy family had flown many such planes. But the controls had locked from the near-impact. As he saw the New Jersey Palisades ahead, he cursed in neither English nor Japanese at the powers he thought certain favored him and his cause.

His cause, by the way, was like many such causes throughout history. A dream worth dying for-so long as somebody else was doing the dying. His own dying would be postponed on many many occasions. In fact, through the wide spectrum of what some call universes and realities, this man would be alive as late as ten years after this date.

But not here. The plane collided with the cliffside, pulverizing its unwitting passenger so well, only DNA would identify him-and then American Intelligence would explode from what they found. The one person who could not possibly have been in that plane was.

People with an even more sinister agenda than this dead man would have to use the death of a sinner rather than a saint to open what they called the Red Gate, but more on that another day.

On the flip side of that, innocents alive and dead in the reality we now describe, the one of these stories, would rejoice without knowing why. The man's last memory before dying had been of a wild blonde-haired girl with dark skin kicking him in the head, before he ended up at his final destination-in this world, anyway.

At the same moment most of the first victims died as the first jetliner collided with the first tower of the World Trade Center, they were also being avenged as the chief plotter met his end above a picturesque highway in New Jersey.

For, at the feet of those she loved best, Kaolla Su had learned well of justice.

NEXT : SECRETS AND ORIGINS


	9. Chapter Eight Secrets and Origins

**Chapter Eight - Secrets, Origins, and The Hinata Shuffle**

_**APRIL 15TH, 2002 - MAHATUAK, MASSACHUSETTS**_

For Naru Narusegawa, the past year had seen the incidence of accidental public strippings and over-the-top retaliation for the same drop off to almost nothing. Now, said stripping occurred in private, and retaliation played a role in private as well, one that was deliberately not talked about when it was realized Shinobu was in the same room. Of late, though, she got that anyway, and blushed just as sweetly as she once had over the mere sighting of bare flesh. Motoko did not reprimand, nor Mitsune joke about this : Very, very frankly they wanted them some, even if their old pounding sheet had chosen another's bed. Mutusmi's thoughts were in the same vein, if a bit more ethereal, while Su's as ever were wild and hard to pin down, save that they were almost omnivorously loving towards her family.

But for Naru, despite all this settling in, life with her Kei would never be boring.

"He asked you what?"

Keitaro still seemed just as surprised as her.

"Keith asked me to stay on here. Says the place could use an able assistant manager."

Keith Ulster, Kei's counterpart at the Hilda Inn, had shown them all great hospitality, and the Hinata-Sou residents (perhaps former residents, they knew) had gladly thrown in for cleaning and maintenance work, each keeping to their own counterparts as they went. Like so many things in their lives, it had been equal measures exciting and strange.

"So what did you tell him?"

Keitaro seemed uncertain. Not the inherent and infuriating levels of uncertainty that were as much an obstacle as Naru's defensiveness, but still something fairly deep.

"Well, first I told him I have to discuss it with you before I even seriously contemplate it."

"Good way to wimp out."

"Hey! So I'm not supposed to discuss it with you?"

She was caught in a bit of her own trap. While indecision on his part was still not welcomed by her, certainly his offering an answer without her at least in on it would not have gone well.

"Calm down. You are-but-you do need a job, and we all need a place to stay, if we want to be together."

His seeming indecision often came from seeing the consequences of possible actions all too clearly. Amped up to dangerous levels, this had given him the ability to calculate the angles in the effort to circumvent Grandma's death during September of last year. In normal circumstances, though, it could and had paralyzed him in more ways than one.

"Can we stay together? We two can do what we want. But asking Motoko or Mutsumi to be away from their families? Mitsu would snap up whatever they offered, and Su can probably get permission from her family. But...Shinobu?"

Naru again felt a twinge. Not from the fear that her man and their young friend would betray her trust, but from the tenderness of their relationship, a tenderness she feared had been lost to her when she chose her fists and sharp words over her heart.

"She could at least ask her family."

"Naru, her folks are not going to approve her moving to another continent. We had a dream, and we achieved it, and then, we traded it in to honor and restore the one we loved best of all. It's like the old stories - she came back wrong, or different. I can live with what it cost me - it's a little harder for what it cost all of us."

Naru, annoyed (or more so than usual) folded her arms.

"We all chose that cost. And she will change her mind."

Kei looked at her with a partway smile.

"This is the same woman who saw us getting married when we weren't even five."

Naru had a surprising counter.

"And wasn't that the wisest thing? How in the hell did she know all her plotting and scheming and 'why let them figure out this new puzzle for themselves?' instead of just letting us know certain things straight-up wasn't what kept us apart?"

"We-kept us apart."

"Yeah, but a little info would have gone a long way. Make no mistake, I love, worship and adore that woman only a little less than her grandson. But in showing proper respect and love, let us never mistake that for her always being right. Because she isn't!"

Lightning flared outside, and Naru glared.

"Same To You!"

Mitsu poked her head inside.

"Sorry-that was me. I used to have an easier time with hangovers. Then again, I never used to wait around for one before starting the next round. Ouuch."

Naru waited until they once again had relative privacy before speaking.

"You have to ask them, too. They're our sisters, and I won't ever make the mistake of thinking they don't all love you ever again."

"Ask them? Even if in some cases, staying with us is impossible?"

"Especially if it's impossible. The day you and Shinobu have to stop - whatever it is you have - I want a raincoat and galoshes at the ready, for you two crybabies."

"You wanna build my confidence any further?"

She gave him a peck on the cheek.

"The only time I ride you is when you don't even try. So try."

So he tried. With each one he had a quiet sit-down, beginning with the one who had done so much to earn his trust.

"Really? Wow, Kei-are we ready for this?"

Kei shook his head at Mitsu.

"Huh? Just like that?"

"Like I'd ditch either of you? And in favor of what? A family I have to set up an FAQ to explain?"

Kei recalled the group headache when Mitsu had tried to explain all that to them. But Mitsu was smiling.

"Besides, I'm actually writing in-between helping Kitty get her ledgers straight. Plus, Shinobu showed me some photos I took in Molmol. I may just end up as a words and pictures gal-maybe even a mangaka. Maybe I'll hire you!"

"I tried that once, remember? Akamatsu-San permabanned me from the industry-unless Lynn Okamoto orders take-out. Then I'm allowed to deliver."

He moved next to the one whose ferocity of seeming hatred once hid an even more fierce love.

"Tsuruko's pregnancy makes such a move impossible-but only for the present. I could rejoin you within a year."

"And do what, Motoko? I'm only going to be assistant manager here, with no ownership rights. I might be able to have Mitsu as my assistant. Naru for her part is fairly certain she can make Harvard in the fall. She has the grades."

The samurai nodded.

"No surprises there. From the Harvard of Japan to the Harvard of...the world. As for myself, Urashima? Molly assures me that an athlete of my skill could easily name my own price, sparring with those seeking Olympic Gold."

"But is that what you want?"

Grinning slyly, she put a finger under his chin.

"What I want has been claimed by my sister."

He flashed a Seta-smile that nearly bowled her over.

"What about Koichi?"

"He will visit his sister, and where we all stay, I cannot see Mutsumi ever leaving."

The girl who loved him with such fervor, she nearly alienated all her friends expressing it, was both easy to predict and very nearly impossible as well.

"Wouldn't this interfere with your cultural observation mission?"

She could never resist hugging him, so she didn't start then.

"Nope! What better way to observe Japanese than watching them in a kind of exile? Besides, Tirana and I are getting along now, and each of our missions will stand to benefit from our two groups interacting."

The hug grew ever tighter.

"Besides, I gave up on having you as my king. I will never let you go as my Onii-Chan."

Rather than feel awkward or make a snarky remark about her grip making him an Onee-Chan by accident, Kei returned the hug, and sat with this wild, tender creature for ten minutes before moving on.

He waited for Mutsumi to rouse from her meditation, including extra mantras taught her by Misty. The second most amazing woman he knew continued moving through emotions as sure-footedly as her physical movements were accident-prone. Her eyes snapped open, gained a brief look of annoyance. She mock-punched his face before kissing it.

"This is me, Kei-Chan. You have to ask where I belong?"

He smiled.

"Yes. The question is your right to hear. The answer I think even I can figure out beforehand."

The final one to be spoken to was the sturdiest of them, yet at times she could be like fragile crystal. Naru knew in her heart of hearts these two would never run around on her. The two were not so certain of themselves, but they were getting there. That, Kei reasoned, was why they hadn't ended up together. They had matured at almost exactly the same rate from the super-crybabies they had once been.

"Stay here? Sempai, that's such a big move. Is Sempai Naru for it?"

"Well, Shinobu, she's doing me the tremendous honor of letting me decide for us. I have to wonder what I did to upset her."

"Baka! She trusts you, and so do I."

"And what about your parents?"

"Well, I might really have to sell it, but think, Sempai. When was the last time I was back at home, or both of them together saw me? Besides, word has it they've gotten frisky in my absence. It was bad enough walking in on you and Sempai Naru. My parents getting intimate? Brrrrr! No thanks."

Kei brought up his next tack.

"And what about Arlo?"

Shinobu shrugged.

"He's been thinking of moving out on his own. If he came here, he'd be snapped up by any of ten restaurants, and that's just in Mahatuak."

From her pocketbook, she produced the Keitaro-Hunt hat and put it on him.

"Sempai will decide for us all, and I know he will choose wisely."

A small kiss followed.

"I gotta go-turns out Sherry is not so much dense as over-extended. I have to teach her how to have fun again."

Kei lay back on a very spacious couch-the Hilda Inn was just insanely large-and hoped that the faith Shinobu and the others placed in him was not misplaced.

_**THE HINATA-SOU**_

Haruka covered her ears.

"Mama, the baby can't sleep!"

Hinata sipped her tea amidst the loud noises as though she did so in perfect calm.

"The baby is not born yet."

"Yeah, well, it still can't sleep. Can't you cancel all this renovation?"

Hinata shrugged.

"It is already paid for. My former tenants' method of financial compensation for my pain and suffering."

Haruka had to shout to be heard.

"Mom, come stay with me and Sarah while all this is being done."

"Why would I? I must keep an eye on all these thieving contractors."

Haruka gave up something she would have vastly preferred not to.

"If you'll come, I promise not to rag you about Keitaro."

Hinata took on a very phony confused look.

"Is he-yes, that nephew of Seta's? You can talk about your nephew whenever you want, child. Why would I prevent you?"

Sarah burst in, her face red and flushed.

"Mom! Some of the contractors are asking how old I am."

"Kick them where it counts, kid."

"I did. They said they've built up a tolerance for it. Can we go before I'm a statistic?"

The pair (or was it trio?) left Hina to stew in the juices she tried hard to pretend weren't ready to boil over. The Hinata-Sou was being renewed around her, the grandiose ideas of Mitsune Konno hard at work.

But the memories of the woman the place was named for were permanent fixtures, and these extended back to the middle of the Nineteenth Century.

_**1852**_

Across the vast ocean, a man named Lincoln debated bitterly and without let to try and keep his divided house from fracturing. But in Japan, Keitaro Urashima took deliberate steps to shatter his house entirely.

"You dare to come back here?"

"It has been five years, Father. MacDougal-San is dead, and the navy he serves has long since departed our waters. I beg again that my willful behavior be forgiven. I forgot my place once, and lost it. I will not do so again."

The cold, hard man, always certain of his every last choice and his innate correctness in it, moved with force to mercifully crush yet another foolish dream.

"No. You will not do so again. For I will never permit you the chance. Resume your landless wanderings, child. Resume them, and vastly increase their diameter."

Her tears gave him no pause, and she was banished anew.

"Crybaby weakling."

_**1872**_

With each would-be employer, it was the same.

"You want me to hire you? A snip of a girl?"

"You look untrustworthy. How do I know you would not run off on me?"

"I will be watching you. Your every moment here will be a test."

And always, an hour later, she was thrown out in the company of three playful foxes.

"Sorry, Hinata-Chan!"

As she watched the vulpine spirits play, she shook her head.

"I thought tricksters were supposed to be clever!"

Clever enough to keep their favorite playmate unemployed.

_**1892**_

Hinata packed her things yet again. The distant cousin, many years her junior (though of course, you could never tell this by looking) was a woman she had called Auntie.

"Have you come to make sure I'm leaving?"

"Please don't be this way."

Hina let the woman see her tears.

"I am not the one at fault. I am the wronged party. But he is not being made to leave, or even apologize."

The former Auntie clearly felt horrible. Just not horrible enough to reverse her decision.

"As long as you are here, I cannot be first in the eyes of my own husband."

"And what makes you so certain that sending me away will change anything? A man of his sick appetites..."

A thunderous blow caught each cheek of the girl-who-was-not.

"You brought that sickness out in him!"

Hinata rose and caught each slapping hand, bending them back just hard enough to make her erstwhile hostess aware that she could bend them much harder than that, if she so chose.

"Keep telling yourself that, as he locates other girls in this area. We were happy once, we who had no one but each other. You had several men of either skill, means or decency seeking your hand. You chose him. Remember that, as you grow old and I stay as I am, both alone again, except that your loneliness will end one day."

Hinata left, wondering how long her kitsune-family would take to forgive her choice to stay there, and knowing she could only get so far before travel became too great an uncertainty that night. But she also knew that someone else would have calculated her departure and the distance she could make. This she used to her advantage.

"There you are, my little wanton. You should have let me talk to her first. I can always get her to do anything I want. Now, wake. It's time I touched you in that one special way that will make you a woman-"

His head rolled off into the rolled-up blankets before him. Hinata cleaned the black blade in the stream, and began a quest to restore it to where it belonged.

"I have been a woman for thirty years. I needed nothing of yours to accomplish this."

Auntie became a woman shunned by local residents whose crying daughters came forward. She died alone five years later, calling for Hinata to return.

_**1912**_

Hinata had rejoiced along with most of her countrymen-and countrywomen-seven years prior when the Russian Imperial Navy found itself no match for the emergent power of its Japanese counterpart. At last, it was Japan that walked in the light of respect and power. Even with much of the rest of the world poised on the brink of war, there was no chance the Western powers would dare try to roll over Japan the way they had decadent and decaying China. Japan's Emperor wore the title of living god on Earth. China's was said to be a small scared boy forced to accept a new name when his people overthrew him after a bloodline compromised by endless concubines and false men at last proved too weak to govern. Rome had fallen the same way. Hinata even knew his name-Romulus Augustulus. As for the world's other kings and queens? Britain's monarchs barely spoke to their children, and could only claim descent from Arthur if their intent was to make people laugh. Japan's star, like its sun, was rising.

"The Russians? They proved to be a great paper tiger. Now, the Americans are investing in a naval force worthy of the name. They're the ones to watch-and do more than watch, perhaps."

"Have you seen some of the geniuses emerging from our academies? They are born masters of strategy. Britain had best watch itself. When these young men come into their own, I'll wager there won't be a single possession in their British Empire that we can't take away, almost simply by deciding it's now ours."

"Break China? China broke itself. Oh, they can blame the Western folk, but let's face it. They were asking and begging to be broken. Mandate of Heaven? Hell, even Son-Goku didn't choose to deliberately piss in the Buddha's palm. But the place is too big to left flailing about freely. That may have to be addressed one day."

"That's a limited way of thinking. Our remote ancestors created all of civilization, remember. So anything that passes for civilization in the Pacific is naturally within our sphere of influence. What did Britain do with their own islands? What did the Moors do to the whole of Greater Araby? What did the Americans do when a whole continent was within their grasp? They all saw something they knew to be theirs by right, and they took it. When the weak sisters cried over it, the strong among them knew that was their cue to push forward even harder."

Hinata knew her homeland was becoming ever stronger, a force to truly be reckoned with. So as she served these increasingly wealthy, better-educated men their rice, meat (and sometimes cheese) as well as tea and sake, she could not quite peg why their words sounded so very ominous to her.

_**1932**_

It was a one-sided conversation, but to be fair, it likely would have been that in any event.

"I knew certain that, when your time came, you would not bother to have me informed. But you actually managed to shock me when you swore all our relations to silence as concerned all that, when it came to me. I didn't even know exactly when it happened, till my sister's great-grandchild spoke to me at school. I spoke about false ancestors of mine, so do not blame him. That was not a request. With what I now know, I could haunt even you."

Hinata tried not to let her bitterness bubble over. This was to prove impossible.

"What did you do to them all, old man? Why did only two of my siblings marry and have children? Did you ride them all with your harsh words and vile glares? Did you make them despair of any dream that wasn't one of your own grey dingy chalk drawings? I've come back here, now, not to beg you to lift my curse-that I will do someday by myself, and I know you would never lift it anyway of your own volition. No, I come now to say that I now realize why all the grand talk our leaders engage in brings me no joy, but only sorrow. For you see, Father, our nation has become a group of people who all talk and act-like you. I only pray that, when their reign is done, that Japan still endures."

"But I am not done. I am mindful of the old stories, and so I now curse you in turn : Should Keitaro Urashima ever walk the Earth anew, let him never walk with sureness of foot, nor speak with conviction or certainty, and let him be the brutalized plaything of others-when he is regarded at all. So come back, Father, if Hell will release you. But come back as demon, god, or ghoul, and you will walk as I have listed. My curse persists as long as yours does-and by that I mean your intent, not the curse itself."

A young boy ran up to her in the cemetery.

"My grandmother says that you are a fiend and should leave this place."

Hinata saw an old woman with a cane in the distance, shaking in nearly mortal terror.

"Tell me, boy-do you have an Onee-Chan?"

"Yes."

"Do you love and respect her?"

"Of course!"

Hinata pointed at the old woman.

"Then tell your grandmother to respect hers!"

The boy ran off in the purest terror imaginable. The old woman glared.

"You should not scare children!"

Hinata shook her head.

"Their elders should not use them to speak to others, when they are too cowardly to face their own kin. You're still a brat, Nura. Decades can't change that, or, it seems, seeking Father's favor, even when he is well past giving it."

With old wounds reopened and no healing having taken place, Hinata again left her one-time home, and began wandering a world at war.

_**1942**_

"This is not fair."

The great fox shook her graceful head.

"The Human War is becoming too intense, Hinata. We Kitsune are spirits, but we have enough about us that is Earthly that we need to withdraw before the worst of it hits. Just as it often has from the land, a great wrath shall visit our land twice - once as a light in the sky, the second time as a roar from the depths. Where we go-you may not follow."

One of the youngest fox-spirits snuggled against the Human she regarded as an older sister.

"But Hina-Nee keeps me out of trouble. I'd be lost without her."

"She will find her own kind once more."

Hina fell to her knees.

"Mother! Please-I hate wandering!"

"No, Hinata-you love wandering. You just hate having nowhere to stay, sometimes when you want to stop wandering. Build such a place up, and make it enduring. For your journey is far from done."

"Don't say such hateful things! I WANT TO DIE! I WANT TO GROW OLD AND..."

When she finished crying, Hina looked around and the kitsune were gone. They were not nearby, nor in any hiding spot she knew.

She knew well why Mother Fox had pulled her blood-family back. But it still felt like mortal and immortal both had no use for her.

"Please-I am so hungry. I will take whatever it is you can offer."

The old man wore a rice-bowl hat, was scraggly-looking and he smelled horrendous. Hina sighed.

"Nice try-but I can sniff out a god a mile away."

The 'peasant' assumed his true, muscular form, looking every inch champion and protector. His eyes flashed golden and silver, with lightning and thunder surrounding his chosen form, this one based on the Scottish Immortal known as Connor Macleod, who had once performed a service for this being.

"You're a pretty smart kid."

He looked directly at her.

"Too bad you've never once taken in the thought that being cursed with immortality isn't quite up there with, say, being slammed in-between revolving mountain ranges for all eternity."

She glared and he shrugged.

"Just sayin.'"

He left as suddenly as he came, and Hinata decided she would once again find a town just large enough to not have everyone immediately know everyone else.

_**1945**_

_Once, a ruler was told that he could end a horrid and hateful war by showing his enemy that the price of fighting on was far too dear._

"Of course I will do this!" said the ruler. "This war must end. Young men, ours and theirs, are dying in numbers tearful to count."

_The ruler was told that there would be a price for so decisive and quick an end to something so messy and grim. That price would be the lives of all those in two cities._

"My own cities?"

_No, he was told. Two cities of the enemy will die by your hands. But enemy or friend, have no doubt that these lives will be known by all to have been ended at your command._

"I'm already responsible for more lives than I can think of. Let this be done, but if any man should say I did this awful thing lightly, only then shall I lash out in fury at them."

_The ruler was as good as his word. His acts he defended in calm contemplation-but towards those who said those lives meant nothing to him, he corrected them with vigor._

_The two cities did in fact die, and the war ended as foretold._

This was a true story, and so is this one. As a child, Hina inspected a wax sculpture an older cousin made by close candlelight. When the light drew too close, of course, it quickly ruined the exquisite miniature, and Hina was punished. She didn't mind-she was being punished for something she did, and understood why she was being punished-unlike some of her father's other rages.

The city she walked down into looked a lot like wax that had passed too close to a candle's flame. Some of the people looked the same. Others resembled the underside of a hot candle's dish, when it was permitted to burn the table and leave an outline of what the dish had looked like.

When Harry Truman made his awesome and awful choice, Hinata Urashima had been one of a handful to see the results on both occasions.

"You have won, Father. Your disobedient girl has been sent to Hell. I tried to leave it, but it will not leave me. So I will lay down with the dead and the ash till they choose to claim me at last."

But as she lay down in the burning nightmare, hands grabbed her up.

"I have a survivor-somehow this one isn't burned."

"She will have to be the only one we find. Nagasaki has been declared uninhabitable."

The nurse, never a friendly sort but dedicated to her craft, would soon realize just how extraordinary her charge was.

Elsewhere, a young man Hina had yet to meet made plans to fly a plane - exactly once.

Their meeting and union would be a momentous one, and has been spoken of already.

_**1956**_

An exhausting summer and fall were done with. People had lined up to stay, and the couple found no time for the aches and pains of their own bodies, and almost none for each other. The Hinata-Sou was a smashing success in its first year of operation. The grandchildren of the warmongers Hina had once served rice to now wanted to ease the aches and pains of Japan's burgeoning economic miracle.

"You did what?"

Hinata was enraged.

"We were finally going to relax-fix the place up as best we could from the profits."

"This-will bring in even more profits."

"One couple? Renting out the whole place?"

Awa shrugged.

"They are wealthy, powerful and value their privacy."

"You could have told me!"

"They were originally calling a hotel in Tokyo, and got our number instead. If I didn't move on it then and there..."

Hinata saw the figures. One couple paying a month's rent for every last room. Awa would have been a fool to let it pass.

"You realize we'll have to wait till early spring before we so much as lift a hammer?"

"Hina, it's early November. How much were we going to get done anyway? You made the choice to let the people keep staying here through Halloween."

He was right, but so was she. The choice between maintenance and hospitality would keep on in some fashion for another forty-six years.

"So when are they coming?"

A knock came at the front door. Hina glared. Awa covered his head.

"I had to move fast."

Hina opened the door. An American man and woman stood there. The man was strong-looking, though he appeared to have some kind of back-pain. The woman looked like graceful, quiet elegance, with expressive kind eyes. She spoke Japanese with very little trace of accent.

"Is this the Hinata-Sou? Oh, it's so lovely. It seems so peaceful, and quiet."

Hina could see this woman had the culture, breeding and taste to appreciate all the endless little touches she had put in.

"You should have seen us only a week or two ago. We welcome you and ask that you take what rooms you will, and make use of our onsen."

The woman nodded, and pointed to her husband.

"He has back pain, as you can see. He could really use that onsen. May I guide him to it?"

Hina shook her head.

"Let my man guide yours, while we two choose your room."

"Rooms."

Hina looked confused.

"His pain would give him trouble with that stairwell, while I can't sleep soundly on the ground floor."

Her husband nodded in agreement, his Japanese not as good as hers but still passable.

"Besides, we're both exhausted. We're with the Democratic Party, back home, and we campaigned extensively for Governor Stevenson to become President. Unfortunately for us, General Eisenhower still had a fondness for the job, so here we are. We don't exactly need to see each other for now."

The silent agreement of his wife to this statement bothered the Japanese couple, but Awa for his part merely helped the husband, Jack, outside to the relief of the spring waters. Jack's pain had left him unable to remove so much as a sock without aid.

"Thanks-kind of embarrassing."

Awa made a guess based on the man's age.

"A war wound?"

"Uhhh-yes. I commanded a PT boat. Mostly, I crashed it."

Awa made sure his guest had enough towels, including ones situated in case his head should fall back.

"I can go you one better. I crashed my plane-deliberately-and ended up missing two ships parked side by side."

Jack pointed, smiling.

"Sure! You're the comical Kamikaze! I visited your plane in Bakersfield-Sinatra showed it to me."

Awa was half-mortified that his disgrace was not yet forgotten, but another name surpassed his own.

"Sinatra? The-Sinatra?"

"There's only one, last I checked. Boy, I loved that movie. What did you think of it?"

"Which movie?"

Jack looked confused, then spoke up laughing.

"Why-The Comic Kamikaze, of course! Jerry Lewis played you! Didn't they have you sign anything, for them to be able to make it?"

Awa shook his head as he went back inside.

"I can be rather dense. But I think I would remember meeting Jerry Lewis."

The hosts made sure their guests were situated and comfortable in their rooms, where they even dined separately.

Hina and Awa sat in the onsen themselves, keeping a promise that their own aches and pains would not be put aside forever.

"Do they-do they even love each other?"

"It may just be-a marriage for appearances sake."

Two people who had spent all their lives alone sat and wondered how such a thing could be. It was then the thin walls of the Sou worked in their favor.

_*You came down for me?*_

_*I do a lot of things for you. I'd like to know that I do something for you.*_

_*They all meant nothing.*_

_*Don't tell me what they don't mean. Tell me what I do mean to you.*_

_*You? In a life whose path my father decided on as he was burying my brother, you're the only thing that's real. Pain-pleasure-power-they all come and go. My Jackie stays. Stays even when I don't deserve it.*_

The silence in their room was soon punctuated by light moans. Inspired by an enduring love that had apparently withstood many hits - Hina and Awa Urashima conceived the first of their two children that same evening.

As for the other couple? It is said that, for one brief shining moment, they led their nation from a place called Camelot.

_**1965**_

Hina knew that she was asking too much of her nine-year-old daughter on a regular basis.

"Your brother needs his nap. Set him down to it."

But their business was a glowing success, and they were always busy. Even the past several off-seasons had been warmer, with the Tea Room actually adding profits instead of merely covering the bills.

"The guests are complaining of dingy sheets. They don't much care about how you hate the smell of bleach."

They were wealthy, with the means to do a lot of things that they wished to. But who to leave a thriving concern with while they journeyed? Neither was close to their families. Besides, there were levels of wealth. That put-off vacation, when it came, would be the payoff to end all payoffs. So they resolved that, when their vacation fund matched their current overall savings all by itself, then and there would they plan it.

"The rule of Hammer is : When you see your father with a hammer in hand, let him concentrate on his work!"

She would make it up to the girl, and increasingly, her little brother, when the time came.

"Time enough for boys and friends? Do you see me with time enough to so much as wipe my forehead?"

That time would not come in the way she hoped.

_**1968**_

Hina swung her blade straight at her daughter's head.

"I waited these three months, then sent the Senator's family our condolences. For him to be killed like his brother was...shocking."

The girl blocked and battered her mother's defenses.

"There are those who say the two brothers and the black reverend were all victims of a conspiracy, perpetrated by ideological rivals."

A downward slice began arcing towards the smaller figure.

"The reverend is referred to as Doctor, child. Just like the late brothers are referred to by their titles."

Tarika stopped the arc with a leap that forced Hina back.

"I will remember, Mother. Will this week see a retreat from Sony, Mitsubishi or Panasonic employees?"

Hina sheathed her blade, and Tarika did the same.

"No. This week it will be the car-maker, Honda. Retreat. A bunch of fat executives who moan about how hard people on the assembly line work for them!"

"You don't like them?"

"I just said so, didn't I?"

Tarika turned away, started to walk off, and then turned back in fury.

"Then why have them here? All mortgages are paid. Our schools and tutors are paid through next year! We suffer neither killing heat or frigid cold in this lovely place. Why can't the off-season once and for all be the off-season?"

"We are saving for a time when perhaps things are not so good. Simple math, little one."

Tarika shook her head.

"Your simple math is subtracting all the joy from my life. I quit your employ. I will continue to see to it that my little brother, who hardly knows you, is cared for. I will clean our rooms. But I am no mule, and I am ending the multiplication of your list of endless projects."

"Go to your room!"

"Where would I go anyway? I have no friends. You've seen to that."

When Awa tried to hold her after this confrontation, Hina pushed him away-which told him to hold her all the closer.

_**1971**_

The girl looked at her mother.

"Do you hate me?"

Hina remembered a much lesser transgression that had cost a girl her home and family.

"No. But what made you believe that this was any sort of solution?"

Tarika held her stomach.

"I didn't plan it. I wanted to be as free and unbound by cares as you seemed shackled by them. Now I will have to really work hard."

Hina had no time machine. But she was determined to change history.

"We will all work hard. My first grandchild may have arrived a bit soon, but she is part of us."

"Mother, I can't ask..."

"No, you can't ask. You are underage. But I will give what help I can, as will your father and brother."

"But-but bookings for the off-season start soon."

"A wise woman once asked me why the off-season couldn't be just the off-season. It's time I heeded her."

As Tarika began to cry, Hina held her.

"Baka! You are not the first to do this. You're just the first to have me for a mother."

"I said so many horrible things."

"And had I not merely shrugged those things off as products of a wise mouth, we might not be here right now."

The girl thought of another prime culprit in this circumstance.

"What of Tenjin, Mother?"

Hina had gotten Awa out of the house before she broke the news. It had not gone well.

"Your father will leave something of him to bury, so that his child may visit the grave, my dear."

But by this point, Awa had calmed down to the point that taking the young fool apart was something to be done slowly, relished for each moment of pain he could deliver.

"And who will give you this magical job of yours?"

Tenjin nervously looked at Awa. Awa rolled his eyes.

"Do I look like a magician?"

"Sir-I didn't mean for this to happen."

Awa, once taken lightly, had developed a glare that could melt stone. Tenjin felt every bit of it.

"Did you use protection?"

"N-No."

"Then you meant for it to happen, whether you did or not. What in the hell do you have to offer my daughter except what she could have gotten from any fool?"

The boy seemed to gain resolve from Awa's anger.

"She and you will get the acknowledgement that I am not worth very much right now. I am a stupid member of a poor family, poor not merely in money but in how we treat each other and ourselves. You are furious with me-my father may be, but he stays drunk enough that I may never truly know. My mother is-you know all this. I am not worth much, Urashima-San. But I have the determination that I will be to my child what no one has been to me, and if I leave that child's side, it will be the will of Heaven, not any action of mine, that separates us. I will be better than what I am, and I will be better than that until the day comes when people will be shocked I come from the family I do."

Awa nodded.

"You remind me of myself at your age."

Tenjin's smile was erased a moment later.

"Don't smile-when I was your age, I was an IDIOT!"

As Tenjin crumpled, Awa made his offer.

"You will stay on a month-by-month basis. You will prove yourself on a daily one. If we eventually let you marry our daughter, and you run around on her in any sense of that phrase, I will fire you from here and give you my old job in the military."

Tenjin looked at him.

"But you were Kamikaze!"

Awa smiled.

"I'll make sure you do better than your father-in-law."

Tenjin bowed and made his agreement.

"Urashima-San-I can offer one thing, and I offer it freely. As I said, I come from a family whose name has no worth. I have no attachment to it."

Inside, the women awaited their men. Awa pointed.

"You two will be under a ton of rules. You won't like them. Too bad. They are the terms of giving what I know cannot work a chance to do just that. Prove me wrong."

With the aid of Awa's son Kenjiro, Tenjin began a long list of many detailed and tedious chores. Delighted that her life was not quite the ruin she feared, Tarika went to bed early. Hina heard of an offer made.

"He made such an offer himself?"

"Yeah. Impressed the hell out of me with it. Actually, the kid always impressed me-I just couldn't let him know it. His family are all scam artists and debt-skippers. But him, he'll work for our approval."

"But giving up his family name to take on that of his wife?"

With that hanging in the air, Awa went to see his little girl-his young woman.

"Papa, if this is the speech about how we won't be playing house, and how babies aren't dolls..."

He squeezed her cheek.

"Some babies are. I just wanted to ask what you were doing."

Tarika held up a pamphlet.

"A list of names. I can't figure out one if it should be a boy-but if it's a girl-I like this one..."

Awa read the name.

"Haruka."

_**1977**_

"Haruka!"

"Boom-Boom-BOOOOOM! That's how the Death Star blowed up, Mama!"

Tenjin calmed his wife.

"Let her be, Tari. That was one hell of a film. But that Han Solo actor? He'll never amount to anything."

She shrugged.

"Maybe-maybe not. But someone tell that whiny Mark Hamill never to try out as a Seiyu! Next time-we see it dubbed."

The car moved along the rainy roads back to the Hinata-Sou as they kept on their amateur review.

"I have to admit-I got kind of lost in that Force nonsense the old man was spouting off. And the Director must be a Kurosawa nut. Didn't he do that Fifties car movie?"

"Dunno-but you're right about that Force stuff. Almost as bad as that immortality bunk my folks told us."

"Thank God you said it and not me. I love those two, but this idea that you can survive anything by focusing on your life and flowing past bad moments-"

"But Papa! Haruka understood all of what Grandma said."

"Then you're smarter than we poor stupid adults, Haruka-what the hell-?"

"Haruka! Get down in the seat-cover yours-"

A young couple's determination to build a better future ended in the path of sudden rockslide and the inability to believe their own fabulous heritage. In the company of her son, Hina identified the bodies of her daughter and son-by-heart. Kenjiro came out holding his niece. Kenjiro's wife stayed at home with the broken-hearted Awa.

"Grandma?"

"Haruka-Chan?"

"Grandma, Haruka did everything you said about bad moments-but it only worked for me."

_**1978**_

The child only grew more depressed as the months since her parents' loss went by.

"It's not a medical analysis. But it's like she's lost the will to live."

Each grandparent took turns sleeping in her room. Visits from Uncle Kenjiro and Auntie seemed to help only a little. One day, Haruka took on a fever and the end seemed near.

"Granpa?"

"Yes, Ruka-Kun?"

"Haruka wants to not be sick, so she can play with Auntie's baby when it comes. But I feel so sleepy all the time."

Awa knew. If the fever could break, she had something to look forward to-a reason to live. But could she stay alive in her condition?

"Just sleep for now, little flower. Grandma and I need you here to help us."

As he slept, Awa saw his warplane before him. But the Rising Sun was gone from it, replaced by the emblem of the Hinata-Sou. His picture of the Emperor was gone, replaced by one of Haruka.

"I now know what I must do."

Waking, he felt Haruka's forehead. Her fever was beyond any alcohol or cold compress to reduce.

"No."

The wind blew in to the closed bedroom. From the shadows formed the last of all shadows.

*It is time, child. I regret-what?*

Awa wrapped his body around Haruka's, inside her blanket.

"Is that you, old friend?"

*That trick worked once, Urashima, when you saved Hina. The child is mine.*

"You'll have to go through me-and you can't. The Breath Of God itself cursed me never to die."

*Despite my grim station, I am an aspect of Heaven. I now withdraw your curse, and will claim you both.*

Death then took a man who lived a charmed life on the Divine Wind. Awa Urashima passed as all men eventually do.

"Well, you got me."

*And now the girl-I-what is this?*

Awa smiled.

"You came here to end a life. You've done so. So take me-I'm yours."

He shrugged.

"But my granddaughter will live, and her fever will break."

To his surprise, Death smiled.

*We all had a bet as to whether you'd reason this one out. But what about your wife?*

"She got by without me for almost a century. She may never forgive me, but she'll have this child and soon another grandchild to fill her life."

Death made Awa's plane appear.

*Ready to storm the gates of Heaven?*

Awa changed the plane into a train.

"You get to see more this way. Life is not lived by flying above it all. Why should death be any different?"

And as the inbound train met its destination, Awa saw a little boy with glasses waiting near the outbound track. They waved at each other.

"Take good care of them, boy."

In a life more or less realer, Hinata suppressed her immediate grief long enough to get her late husband off of their granddaughter. Her fever had broken, and her will to live back-along with her appetite.

"Granpa is tired, Ruka. I'll fix you something to eat after I get him to our room."

It was only many years later that college-age Haruka realized that her grandfather had died in her bed. Hina wept in her room as long as she dared, called her son and asked questions of the deceased.

"Did you trade yourself off so lightly? Were you so anxious to complete your final strafing run? Were you-"

She kissed his cooling cheeks and went off to make their granddaughter a large meal.

_**1979**_

"Why is your fist bloody?"

"It's not mine. Emily Kashigawa doesn't know when to shut up."

Hina pointed.

"Get in the car. Uncle and Auntie are waiting for us."

"Baked Goodies!"

Her smile was big and expressive, and her manner always different shades of loving but sarcastic. Her hair was worn in huge pigtails on either side, and she was always full of questions and manic energy. No girl remotely like her would ever be seen at the Hinata-Sou, ever again...except maybe those times it did.

"Hey! Is my new cousin there?"

"Hey is for horses."

"Only in English."

"You were using it in English. In its English connotation."

"Wow-OK. Is my new cousin there?"

"He will be. I believe they have chosen his name."

"Does he have a penis?"

"HARUKA! He's a boy!"

"Well, that's good. My romance magazines say cousins make good back-up in case you can't find a husband-and I'd insist on mine being fully equipped. Is it a big one? Because Uncle's is a bit petite."

When Hina glared, Haruka smiled even wider.

"Teacher says there isn't enough soap in the world to clean out my mouth."

"Perhaps soon-we will put that to the test."

The car ride soon showed one of its fringe benefits when Haruka fell asleep. Once inside her Uncle's home, she perked right up again. Bouncing, she picked her cousin up.

"The Baby! The Baby! The Baby! The-did you change him? Good-Baby!"

Haruka held her treasure close, while the adults spoke.

"Mom, we got him a name."

Kenjiro's wife Aya nodded.

"We couldn't decide, till we did some family research. It turns out there was a Hinata Urashima who was born sometime before 1850."

Hina almost spat out her tea.

"Do-tell. How-amazing. Dears-we have to talk-"

"In a minute, Mom. So-we learned her father's name, and so-"

Hinata pleaded silently, to no avail.

"Meet Keitaro Urashima!"

Aya pointed to where Haruka and the baby should have been.

"Where-are they?"

As the frantic parents ran out, Hinata remembered her curse.

"Little one-I am so sorry. Your path will be an interesting one-but I fear, never easy at all. Awa-spirits-do what you can for him, to help him survive an old idiot's foolishness."

Outside, the baby was being shown the world.

"You stick with Cousin Ruka, kid. I'll never steer you wrong-hey! This neighborhood doesn't look familiar at all. Well, we'll stop somewhere for crepes and cod, if we have to. Grandma will find us. You'll learn-Grandma can do anything. I guess we're still in Tokyo...or at least still in Kanto. Maybe we better take a train..."

It was, as the saying goes, a three-hour tour.

_**1984**_

"Hey, it's okay. My mom got knocked up with me, and she was four years younger than you. Things turned out all right."

The young woman now calling herself Alice Guthrie rolled her eyes.

"Thanks a lot, Haruka."

"I'm just saying."

Alice sighed. Haruka's mother had been supported by the child's father and all her own family. Alice had only Hinata and her family. A small hand touched her stomach.

"The baby's gonna be here soon, right, Alice-San?"

Alice helped the curious little one up.

"That's right, Kei-Kun. Will you help me by playing with it?"

"Gee, I dunno. I'm almost four, and this'd just be a baby. I'm getting too big to play with babies. Auntie Haruka, will you play with me?"

Alice smiled.

"Auntie?"

Haruka grumbled.

"You little MORON! I am not some old hag in a creaking chair! Stop calling me AUNTIE!"

The little boy wailed.

"! Auntie's angry with me!"

Just as suddenly, she held him.

"Crybaby-Jerk! I am not-just-not in front of people, alright?"

"Alright, Auntie."

Before another round could start, Alice grabbed her stomach.

"Haruka-get your grandmother-NOW!"

Hina was indeed summoned fast, and Alice helped to the room she was staying in. Haruka stayed upstairs, and so did most of the adults. Hina came down briefly, and saw her grandson was alone.

"Keitaro-go play outside, all right?"

"I wanna see the baby, Grandma."

"Later, I promise. You know-a couple staying here has a little girl about your age, and none of her brothers or sisters came with them. She has no one to play with."

"Wow-I better go play with her then, Grandma."

Keitaro headed down the steps to the sandbox. Indeed, a little girl with strange eyebrows was sitting there alone.

"Hi! My Grandma sent me down to play with you. Do you want to play with me? My name's Keitaro."

She smiled a very pretty smile.

"I'd like to play with you, Keitaro. My name's Mutsumi."

"Mutsumi? What's wrong with your chest?"

"Oh-these are my boobs."

"Can't you get shots for them?"

"My Mama says, someday I'll get lots of shots because of them."

"Well, what do you want to play?"

Mutsumi shook her head. For some reason, her chest kept on shaking for a second after that.

"I like how that does that."

"Keitaro, we have to wait till the sick girl is better. She came here to get well."

Near the edge of the sandbox was a younger girl lying down, looking feverish. Keitaro glanced over.

"Geez, she's almost a baby!"

When he looked near again, a fist lashed out and caught him in the face.

"OWWW! My nose! She knocked me across the sandbox!"

Mutsumi folded her arms.

"Naru! Keitaro came to play with us. Be Nice!"

The littler girl giggled.

"He funny!"

"Keitaro, let her hit you again!"

"Huh?"

"That's the first time I've seen her laugh. Laughing makes you get better!"

"It does? Well, let me see how she's...owwwww! Hey! Stop it! You dumb ba-oooohh-all right, I won't call you a baby!"

"Fall down again, Keitaro!"

Upstairs, while an exhausted Alice slept, Hina held the newborn boy his mother would name Arlo. She looked down and saw her grandson playing. That night, several of Alice's girlfriends would rent late summer rooms to be by and support the friend so badly treated by her family. Haruka would be about the task of corralling these girls-when she and her friends weren't learning how to 'party-hardy' at their feet. They would all repeat this for several summers until Hina, tired of the seasonal grind, decided on a fundamental change in the clientele of the Hinata-Sou.

"It would seem like many things have begun this day."

As the long day ended, Hina walked down to collect her grandson, only to hear him forcefully make a loud promise of some kind. Red lightning struck the annex.

"Curse or no curse, that boy knows how to call it down on himself. I believe we must obtain-a fox!"

_**1985**_

The kitsune assumed its Human form.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to calm down the fates? They don't much like the Urashimas, Hina. You bunch are always with the curses and the challenges, and Jerry Lewis movies-and now you have kids challenging them directly?"

"The spirits do not like Jerry Lewis?"

"The Japanese ones don't. The French ones consider him a living god."

"Can you contain the chaos?"

"I already have. Can you-do for me?"

Hina rolled her eyes.

"Come on, Onee-Chan-you always took care of me. Eventually, you'll take in the other one, right?"

"The other one will be too powerful to not have guidance. As for this one-show her to me."

What looked like a small girl came out of the bush.

"Kanako-you'll be going with this lady. She's my sister-but you'll call her Grandma."

The girl shook her head.

"Mother is irresponsible."

The kitsune sniffed, shifted form and ran off. Hina knew how to prevent Kanako from doing the same.

"At this stage, you are too Human for her to care for. But I have a family that will love you. You will even have a big brother."

The girl walked along with Hina, but was quite defiant.

"I will hate him."

"No you-what are you doing?"

"Closing my eyes so you can't see me. I am a master of disguise."

"Maybe someday, child. Maybe someday."

_**1989**_

Hina had to concede, it was a friendly triangle, as far as these things went.

"It's a lovely meal, Mrs. Urashima."

The American, Tara MacDougal, was indeed the granddaughter of the Sam MacDougal she had known after World War Two, and the niece, many generations removed, of the Sam MacDougal whose tender friendship had gotten a little girl in trouble.

"The air by your onsen is so good for my lungs."

This girl's lungs needed no help, as she also appeared to be a distant relative of the Otohime family.

"All three of you appeared to enjoy the onsen last night, my dear. Especially Noriyama-sitting in-between the two of you-with part of him between both your-"

"Mom! We're not stuck in the hidebound past. We all enjoy each other's company, and we're not shy about it."

"Apparently."

The nervous eyes of the college trio centered on the old woman who had them all where the ladies had Seta the night before.

"Urashima-Dono? About-about the expedition?"

Haruka shot her man a glare that screamed 'Dork!', but Hina raised a calming hand and offered up even more calming words.

"I will finance your expedition. Provided your mind is on your work, and not the re-enactment of every ecchi film since the war ended."

Tara pointed to Seta.

"I wouldn't worry there, Ma'am. Once he's out and about with his beloved relics, the only ecchi thing he'll look at will be local versions of the Lady Godiva legend."

"Yes! The Turtle Civilization did have a version of it, only she had to ride bundled up and risk heat prostration. She lost so much weight sweating, her figure was ruined and her husband in horror reduced taxes in exchange for each peasant giving his lady a piece of cheese so he could fatten her up again."

Hina cut him off after the seventh tangent.

"As I said, I will finance your expedition. But for the upcoming season, Nori and Tara must aid me in certain projects meant to bring on many changes here at the Sou."

"Ho-Ho! Foo! Too bad for you two. Mom here can be a real slave-driver."

"Don't laugh that oversized ass of yours off, Haruka! Because with your bar-tabs and shopping bills plus the damage you and your pals did to Alice's, I own it outright! When you get back, I will set you on the path of responsibility."

That did draw a laugh. Later that evening, Hinata awoke to the sound of someone losing much of the dinner they'd eaten. It was Tara. There was also blood from her mouth.

"You poor dear. Let me call-"

Tara cleaned herself off, and stopped Hina.

"I don't want them to know. Please?"

After she was done, Hina guided the younger woman to her room.

"What is it they don't know?"

Tara shrugged.

"The doctors told me that it wasn't the best idea..."

She produced a picture of her with a smiling infant happily feeding on her bosom.

"But when Hank-her father-died, I couldn't get rid of the last piece of him left on this Earth. Now, there's no real saying when it will happen-just that it will."

Hina smiled at the pretty little one, but glared at its mother, barely past being a baby herself.

"Yet you want to spend what time you may have left gallivanting around the world?"

Tara pointed in the direction of the other guests' rooms.

"Those two are my world. My place is by their side. I'm convinced they'll wise up and marry any day now, and they can take care of her the way I won't be able to. Inactivity is only going to make me weaker even more quickly. I want my time to be filled with the stuff that fills up journals-journals I can leave to Sarah and tell her that I kept to the family motto : Be brave and adventurous, like Little Sister."

"Your little sister is an adventurer?"

She smiled, a less air-headed smile than Hina had allowed for when they first met.

"No. See, an ancestor of mine-named Sam like my Granddad-got stationed overseas. Part of Admiral Perry's Imperialist effort to force Japan to do things against its will. I am so sorry for-"

Hina waved her off.

"The long-term results were good, my dear. Continue your story."

The political screed cut off, Tara did just that.

"Well, he came ashore and met a Japanese girl, about his sister's age, and they kind of acted like brother and sister, and when his real sister wrote that she was scared without him, he told her to be brave and adventurous, like his Japanese little sister. Ever since that time, MacDougal women can get through anything, because somewhere out there is our brave and adventurous little sister. It sounds silly, I know. But I couldn't get knocked out for delivery, and thinking of that old story saw me through the pain-Grandma? Are you crying?"

Two brave girls held onto each other and kept one another's secrets through a long night and for one of them, through a longer night to come.

_**1991**_

Ashura looked out at her surroundings.

"I'm gonna live my whole life here!"

Jung smiled and nodded.

"Now this is high living."

Annie Saito was ready to move in.

"An all-girls dorm! We'll be like mothers to any younger girls."

Julie Kisaragi set down her bags.

"Someday I'll be a CEO and have a secretary do that for me. This place is the start of something big for me!"

Kanae marked off her room quickly.

"No more older brother and his weird girlfriends! I'd swear one of them was the devil."

Felice and Molly bowed to Haruka, who rolled her eyes and looked at Grandma.

"These girls will probably never leave here. But me? I'm gone first thing. I'd rather live in the back-room at Alice-San's restaurant. Make book on that! House Mother my ass."

_**1993**_

Haruka's predictions proved somewhat off, as evidenced by later new arrivals.

"But suppose boys come in? Boys who want to take our innocence?"

"You kidding? We should be that lucky."

Ironically, the girl seemingly wishing for her deflowering was scared beyond description of that far-off day, and the seemingly fearful one merely curious.

"It's good to have you back, Naru."

"Back, Grandma-San?"

She obviously did not recall her early childhood visits. Hina relented from reminding her

"After a long day wandering around with Mitsune."

"A THOUSAND apologies, Grandma-san. I told her we should have gotten permission!"

Mitsune Konno rolled her eyes.

"Naru, remind me not to be around when you finally unclench those cheeks. The gas inside must be toxic after all these years."

"Guess you'll never have a problem there, Konno-San. A boy probably put it there on you, too."

Mitsune stiffened up in apparent fear, then shifted to a feigned calm.

"I get around. No apologies from this girl."

"Hmmph! Well, any guy who gets in the way of my grades is not going to have anything to put on or in anyone ever again!"

As the two went upstairs to their room, Haruka smirked.

"I think we need to take whatever liquor we confiscate from Konno-Chan - and give it to Narusegawa-Chan to loosen her up."

_**1994**_

"The truth be known, she is a magnificent warrior. I can barely stay ahead of her, with all my most advanced techniques."

Grandma sat and listened, something she was good at.

"But my marriage touched off something deep in her. A fear that has haunted her since our parents left us too soon. I have raised her as best I can, but I am only just ready to be a wife-I can no longer be her mother as well. She is afraid of men, and looks upon her fellow woman with contempt. I can beat her on the field-handily, if her confidence comes into play-but I cannot break the shell she's built around herself."

Leaving as invisibly as she came, the visitor left. Hina called to the girl in the next room.

"Motoko-your sister has given permission for you to live here."

_**1996**_

"We trust your discretion in this matter."

Hina frowned.

"She's already made quite an impression on the others. Motoko is in hiding."

The man in the black suit and glasses shrugged.

"She must learn of the ways outside our environs-not to mention clothes. We've been working on that. Doctor Henry Jones' associate, Doctor Seta, spoke highly of this place."

"Is there anything else I should know about?"

"Yes. She is fond of two things above all others-bananas-and-"

Outside, a rocket was being ridden by a dark-skinned blond girl whose new dress had torn off during launch.

"Inventions. She likes to invent."

Hinata raced downstairs. Though she despised so-called Instant Pudding, it served an important purpose.

"Kaolla Su? Who's for banana pudding cream pie?"

The rocket was ditched, the pie eaten and a nude was dressed.

Because Grandma Hina is just that good.

_**1997**_

Her date for the evening had fled in terror. Shinobu Maehara was in tears. Haruka was an hour getting to fall asleep.

"She all right, Haruka-chan?"

"You punched her date, Naru."

"Hey! My robe-"

"He was eleven, Naru. He probably didn't even know what it was he saw."

"He was a coward, though."

"Motoko, you threatened to lop off his-"

"Only to test his resolve-a test he failed. Shinobu-chan is better off without him."

"He wasn't much fun, either. He complained the whole time."

"Is that the whole time you had him in the giant pinball, Su?"

Kitsune raised a finger in the air.

"Let us resolve that this girls-only dorm remain male-free-we can go over to their houses!"

"You're impossible!"

"She is that-but I agree with the first part."

"Boys aren't very durable. Shinobu's date was screaming even as I strapped him in to the pinball. Maybe they shouldn't come around here."

"I'd call that a resolution. I am on the verge of taking first in all of Japan for Todai Prelims. I don't need hairy voyeuristic greaseballs distracting me."

Hina emerged after Haruka dispersed Shinobu's would-be guardians.

"That one in there is as fragile as they come-but the rest wanna make this some kind of female hideout. Mom, we're supposed to be preparing them for the world-but they want to live in fear of it."

Hina smiled.

"They are a formidable bunch, apt to get their way. So what is required is-a living force of chaos that cannot be planned for."

_**Early 1998**_

The girls sat stunned. Naru openly gasped.

"A vacation?"

Motoko eyed her mentor.

"Are you the real Hinata? For she never relaxes."

Su looked frightened.

"But you have so many things to teach me, Grandma-like how that creature lives in the garbage can next door to the giant yellow canary."

Shinobu put her hands together.

"Grandma deserves time off-ohhhhhh-but please don't go? What will I do without you?"

Kitsune tried to look nonchalant.

"The place-really wouldn't be the same without you. This place-wouldn't be this place without you."

The hurt on the trickster's face told the story.

"Relax, you crybabies. It will be a short vacation. You'll barely know I'm gone."

Motoko jumped into the air, sword drawn.

"That vase moved-I will swear that the vase moved!"

"Calm down!"

"Nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"The vase did not move!"

The girls cleared out, with Shinobu and Su running back for hugs. When the room was secure, Hina wrote a note and kicked the vase.

"Kanako-give this note to your father and have him call me."

The vase did not respond.

"Don't make me give you to Motoko!"

The vase vanished mere seconds later.

The next day, a potted plant appeared. A cell phone sat atop it.

"My child-it's not a disguise if you're just wearing what amounts to a giant box!"

The cell-phone stayed and rang. The plant un-potted itself.

"Mom?"

"You got my note, Kenjiro?"

"Mom, I am not going to throw my son out over a simple disagreement."

"But he has challenged you. Can you let this stand?"

"But Mom? I'm beginning to think he can make Todai this time, if he has no distractions. He's really improving."

Hina knew this, but for the sake of her other charges, she needed her grandson distracted.

"Are you his father or his pal? Draw a line and tell him it is either your bakery or his impractical dream."

"Mom-is this one of your schemes? Tarika-Nee told me all about how you pull these stunts-"

"KENJIRO!"

"Yes, Mother. The Line Is Drawn."

_**Mid-1998**_

Haruka made a phone call.

"Mom? You'll never guess who showed up...yeah, him. Vacation running longer than you thought? He's...he's what? Mom, they're never going to accept him. He didn't mean to do it, but they see him as this huge liar now...no they hate him most of all. Mom, if you do this, you're tossing a sausage bomb into a house of wool, and...wow. Ok, I get it now. You are devious."

_**1999**_

"Nice of you to call, Mom. Well, he ran off, then they ran off, and we're taking care of Tara MacDougal's daughter now-no, she likes to hit him too. The only one who doesn't do it is Shinobu. Accepted? Well, they are hitting him less and achieving less distance when they do, so that's something. I guess. This was supposed to be a short vacation, right? Mom?"

_**2000**_

"Did you send her? NO-did you send her? You did? Well-Mom-my niece nearly BLEW UP THE FREAKING HINATA SOU-and not in the innocent way Kaolla Su does sometimes-I mean in a deliberately 'If I can't have him no one will' kind of way. Yeah. Any more instances of nudity? Mom, it's been two years. We could give each other physicals by now. Call off your dog-or I expose the whole scheme. You old demon schemer-they were coming together even before Keitaro left with Seta! Ohhh! Kanako exceeded her orders? YOU THINK?"

_**August 2001**_

"Mom? So-that was it? You show up and confirm that they knew each other back when, then-pfft? Okay, whatever. Mission accomplished, and I can go off on my honeymoon. Just please tell me that you didn't plan Molmol. You didn't? No-no-NO-don't try and tell me you couldn't. Just that you didn't."

_**September 2001 - Bakersfield, California**_

A woman successful in all fields of Human endeavor stood before what was once her late husband's greatest disgrace. The comical plaque read - 'Kamikaze Plane - Hardly Used' and then another told its story. Inside a case was a poster of Jerry Lewis in badly-done (supposedly) *Asian-looking* make-up, face wide in a funny-looking scream as he sat in a cockpit.

"If it weren't for this wreck, we would never have met. Awa-you were like the first solid dream in what had been a long nightmare-and I miss you-and I wonder when I will see you again..."

She spoke in a whisper.

"...for I almost welcome that day."

_**April 16th, 2002**_

Perhaps, she now realized, she was again a little too ready to move on. But coul

she find the courage to call her grandson back?

"Excuse me, please?"

A boy approached the front door. Hinata bid him come in.

"Yes?"

"Ma'am? I-my name is Kenichi. I once dated Shinobu Maehara. I-kind of ran off that night-"

"Yes, Kenichi. I remember you."

"Yes, Ma'am. But-during your absence, I came back and made an utter fool of myself. I was crazy from all the years away-and I wish you would tell all the others on my behalf that I am very, very sorry. I must go."

The boy stopped and shook his head.

"I must have been the biggest idiot this Sou has ever seen."

He was gone quickly, his embarrassment obviously still strong. Hina smiled after he was well away.

"No. Not the biggest fool by any stretch. For the greatest fool is also an ungrateful one."

Hina placed a call to the Hilda Inn, looking for her grandson and his-lady friends.

They were not there.

_**ON A PLANE OVER KANSAS CITY**_

"Was Keith disappointed, Sempai?"

"A little, Shinobu. But he understood my reasoning. Win or lose-"

He smiled to see his fiancée, and all the contenders for her spot, soundly and peacefully asleep.

"-not going back to see Grandma one last time would be too much like running away."

He nodded.

"And I'm through running."

_**SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2001**_

People of sick, twisted intent-people as bad or worse than the plotters of the attacks that day-watched as Hinata Urashima was saved and another died in her place. Two of these shrugged.

"Whether with the blood of a saint or that of the worst of sinners..."

"...so will the Red Gate open, and let slip all that never was!"

Hina had been saved, and a plotter punished. But some evils, millennia in the plotting, just kept on.

And when their plot came to pass, they would be challenged by the oddest bunch in Human history. 


	10. Chapter Nine Auntie Matters

**Chapter Nine - Auntie Matters**

_PERSONAL JOURNAL, HARUKA URASHIMA-SETA, APRIL 19TH, 2002_

_I can't help but feel I'm forgetting something. Something numbers-wise. Math has always been my one bad subject. Lucky for me, Shinobu was a brilliant shopper so I could fake it on the food budget. But I have this feeling my bad math is about to bite me on the ass. _

_Hubby is off with Hank, consulting on some weird stuff about the vase he returned to Molmol last year. I laid off on any warnings, should he not be here when my due date arrives. He's not that dense._

_It's like Al Pacino said, they keep dragging me back in. Except - I chose to come back to the Hinata-Sou, trying like crazy to reconcile my mother who is also my grandmother with my nephew who is also my cousin. _

_My nephew who is also my cousin used to be an idiot weakling, and is now a slightly savvier nerdy cool guy, engaged to a woman who once would have gladly shoved a nuke down whichever of his orifices presented itself first, and now wants his exclusive services for her own orifices-Sarah stop reading this-you aren't old enough._

_Nope-still not old enough._

_Anyhow, my mother who is also my grandmother also used to be dead, only now she never died, but she seems to have come back wrong-from the death that she never died. God, I know Kei and the girls cheated your angel of death, but having my Mama back gave me my mind back, and let me come back to my husband and our little girl-not to mention starting preliminary work on more babies-SARAH! I said No._

_Kei, bless him, is trying to listen to reason, but he's angry, and who can blame him? A guy known as a screw-up for good reason cobbled together a genuine miracle and its prime recipient all but tosses scalding tea in his face for it._

_Mama, you've guided me since before my parents left us. You are the reason my mother chose to keep me when the shocking news came that two fifteen-year-olds not using protection are idiots. You stroked my cheeks when I needed it, paddled and kicked my other cheeks when I needed that._

_But know this - though I've told him to shut up, man up and to try and not screw up so often, I love that little baby you gave me to take care of when I was eight. I may be Ryobo, I may be Oba-San, and I may now be Mama myself. But I am now and forever a lady of the Hinata-Sou, and that means loving and protecting Keitaro Urashima - even from you._

The older woman looked up, her lack of height taking nothing away from the strength of her non-stare.

"Then take your nephew and go out. I'm not stopping you."

The older woman looked at a man who was once her grandson.

"Something to say, boy?"

Kei did his best to look as disinterested as her.

"Nothing, Ma'am. I just wanted to get that letter of recommendation for my interview at the Hilda Inn."

"Hmmph! And why should I consider writing it? You left this place a ruin when I fired you!"

Kei reached into the kitchen cabinet, picked up a baby's tea-cup marked 'Kei-Kun's' and smashed it against the ground.

"See that? That is a ruin. An investment of many many yen in a place nearly fifty years old is not a ruin. Or are you just sorry that you didn't get to plan it?"

Kei walked out, and his sisters in the Sou realized that his temper could be a very ugly thing indeed. Shinobu thought back to the stupidity in Molmol, and her Sempai's words that, had she not released him to seek Naru, he would have threatened to hate them all. It was an ugly thought then. The certain knowledge that it was possible for him to be so angry brought it all back again.

Mitsu threw off her apron.

"Hope your vacation got you a lot of rest, lady-because you're going to need it. I quit!"

One by one, in no particular order, the sisters left, till only Sarah was there.

"Not going with them, child?"

Sarah stared forward.

"I know that you're planning something, Grandma."

"Do you now?"

"Yea-ah. You're kind of obvious, like Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back. Except even Luke knows it, this time. Kei can be dense, but he's not that dumb. So why not move it up?"

The girl sighed when Hinata would not respond any further.

Upstairs in the shower, another kind of frenzy was in motion.

"MITSU!"

Putting a robe on Mitsune Konno and pulling her out of her fiancé's shower, Naru sat down her oldest friend, and tried hard not to strangle her.

"Just what were you doing in there?"

"Ummm-scrubbing Kei's back?"

"With your boobs?"

"Hey, I lathered them up first!"

A minute's silence passed before Mitsu tried again.

"Look, remember when he broke his leg?"

"I wouldn't bring up broken limbs if I were you."

Mitsu got in her friend's face.

"You know, Narusegawa, you're not so tough that I couldn't take you if I had to!"

Naru pondered this-for about three seconds.

"Yes, I am. I could take on you, and your whole family!"

A lightning bolt struck next to Naru, and she looked up.

"BRING IT!"

Mitsu covered her friend's big mouth.

"Ix-nay on offending the elders of reation-cay!"

Naru reconsidered fighting all the hosts of Heaven, and focused back on Mitsu.

"Okay, he broke his leg. Which has what to do with you using your rack on his back?"

She shrugged.

"He was hurting. And I think the only thing I did for this guy who was already somewhat accepted here and to whom I owed favors and money was make a snide comment about not catching a summer cold."

Naru's anger seemed to give way to a lost look.

"Not our best time, alright? Shin-chan stayed near him, then. Mutsumi's too nice, and Su you have to peel off him. The rest of us? Okay, you've got me listening."

Mitsu closed her eyes.

"I love the little monkey. I think I have for awhile, and I mean before Kanako went all Torquemada on us. But every time he's ever been in a bad way, I twist the knife, turn the screws, you name it. I wanted, when he was reeling from whatever Grandma's pulling, to do something that screamed that I was there for him. So there I was - naked in front of him by my own choice, no punches, just a hug for a man who will never be anything more than my bro, and me doing all this knowing full well his future wife might kill me for it. Am I making any sense?"

Naru felt a lot better, having found a kindred spirit in the guilt that still sometimes haunted her. Some punches, some cruelty, had just been transactional. Other things she might never forgive herself for. It felt good to know she had a sister on that front as well.

"Only all the sense in the world. But - how did he get the burn marks on his back?"

Mitsu smiled.

"Because I am just that hot. Now let's go see how he's doing."

"What?"

"Ahem - you'll see - I'll listen from outside. Geez, Naru."

Mitsu waited outside, and heard Naru yelp yet again. Confused, she saw Motoko shoved out the bathroom door. The samurai girl blushed.

"I brought-the scented bath beads?"

Naru was red, but not from blushing.

"He's taking a shower!"

"I was willing to wait."

Naru's eyes began to dart about, Terminator-like.

"Where's Mutsumi?"

Mitsu answered.

"Meeting her folks in town for the day."

"Su?"

Motoko nodded.

"Live Video Conference with her siblings, concerning reforming Molmol's secret police force."

Naru looked about once more.

"Okay-I'm taking him to our room. You two rubdown artists - block my sides. Any questions?"

They had none, and soon Naru emerged with Kei, still looking as down as they'd ever seen him.

"Thanks, girls - that was a silky robe, Mitsu. Wear it more often."

"Uhhh-yeah, Kei. Anytime for you."

A partial Naru-glare cut the two unwilling guards off, and Naru took her man, entered their room, and closed the door.

"AAAAAGGGGHHH!"

Three seconds later, the door opened again. A young woman, fully clothed, was being held by the ear.

"Sempai, you're busy with studies! I was just going to comfort him while he slept."

"Comfort-Arlo."

Shinobu shook her head.

"But he's not asleep."

The door closed again, and the sound of a dresser being moved in front of it was heard. Mitsu tsked.

"She is getting sooooo territorial."

Motoko nodded.

"I would have thought better of her."

Shinobu sounded a bit lost.

"I think Arlo would understand being my second..."

Since the sounds of lovemaking were starting behind the door, the other two grabbed Shinobu to give her a cold shower-maybe several of them. The sounds stopped, but most residents knew this to be a mere interval between rounds. One former resident did not, and shoved open the door.

"Okay, you two-Kei and I-"

To her credit, Haruka had prepped herself for seeing her two former charges getting 'hot and heavy'. What she did see, though - frightened her.

"What the hell?"

Kei was in dirty outdoor gear, holding a pick-axe and a shovel. Naru was wearing a short-black wig, and holding an unlit cigarette while trying to look disdainful.

"Great-Seta and I have been cosplayed."

As the two hurriedly ditched their 'gear', Haruka grumbled.

"Congratulations. You two have officially scarred my baby."

Haruka marched over to Naru.

"Who were you supposed to be?"

"Ummm-you?"

"So-you were supposed to be Auntie Haruka, right?"

"Ri-ight?"

Haruka punched Naru across the room, then walked over to her.

"Then that must mean I'm Naru. Mind if I take my fiancé for a shopping trip, Oba-San?"

Naru was not hurt from the punch, but to say she wasn't stunned would be a huge lie.

"Well-sure. At least it'll get him away from the local stalker convention. Have fun, you two."

Haruka grabbed away Naru's prop cigarette.

"Two things - one, I never look disdainful - I look nonchalant. Big important difference. Two - the next time you two do that scene, Naru stays me - but Kei is just Kei."

Kei gulped.

"But that would mean I'd be - - "

Haruka stomped his foot.

"When you fantasy role-play-never go in half-way."

Naru and Kei exchanged a sly look.

"Well then, Auntie-"

They got on either side of her.

"Let's not go half-way on...anything."

As they held her close, Haruka rolled her eyes.

"One, I'm too close to delivering. Two, I cannot be embarrassed by innuendo of any kind. Three - "

Haruka smiled as she withdrew.

"-you two would *never* survive the experience-and I'd miss you."

As she predicted, the stunned look on their faces was priceless, and after they 'finished up', Kei got ready to go on an old-fashioned shopping trip with his favorite aunt.

**JOURNAL**

_She's definitely set to become an Urashima woman - way smarter than her man most times, brick-like on those rare moments she is dumb. Since her new way of pounding on him leaves him with a goofy grin instead of tears, I'll let her be. Somewhat._

_I got word from Emi. While my dear friend Doctor Kashigawa would never violate a patient's privacy, she did vaguely indicate that Sempai Bob's sessions with Alice and Arlo are going well. While Alice never really whaled on her son, she feels as rotten as Naru does about Kei. But Arlo forgives his Mom, same as Kei does his woman. Just when did these guys start to learn the kind of endurance and patience that we used to own?_

_But all that means is that I have that much more room to mess with Kei this day, and I intend to use it. _

Kei made the notes he was told to, though as usual, keeping them straight was a clumsy cluster of fingers and pens and odd marks Haruka hoped she could decipher.

"If not in Japanese, at least try for English or Chinese?"

"Ha-ha, Auntie. I was only expecting to be buried in boxes. Why no purchases?"

Haruka was once again about to lambaste him for his sheer denseness, but realized quickly there was no man anywhere who would get what she was going through.

"No point. I have no idea how this baby is going to affect my figure, short, near and long-term. A lot of the really nice stuff is not for the truly plus-size-specially the rump."

She moved in for the tease.

"How does my rump rate, little kinsman?"

"Naru's not here, Auntie."

She broke his smile by seizing him by the ear.

"You go to all the trouble of peeping on me in the onsen and you dare have no opinion?"

"OWWW! Hey-I've always thought you were pretty-I'm biased, remember?"

Shockingly, he almost pushed her off as he broke her grip.

"I like every last bit of you-so does your husband."

Without meaning to, Kei let Haruka have some of what he meant for Grandma.

"You know, you're the only one who has a problem with your looks, and it's becoming as pathetic as anything I've ever done!"

Immediately, he expected a steel-splitting slap across the face, if not a knee to his privates.

"Thanks, nephew. I mean that."

Instead, she pulled him close.

"I know I go on about how I look. And you're wrong - really, it's worse than any whine you've put out - and you've put out some all-time classics."

Haruka let him go, and shook her head.

"I guess I always thought, that if I'd been prettier, my folks might've stayed around..."

He didn't point out that a car accident gave them little choice in the matter. She knew this. But it was hard arguing with that little kid who still waited somewhere inside you.

"Auntie, why don't we just have fun today? I mean, you can shop better with Naru or Sarah."

Haruka had been on the verge of yet another piece of innuendo, regarding their 'fun', but honestly felt she had drained that lizard.

"What did you have in mind?"

A moment later, they were moving to a rhythmic beat, their bodies in sync and in motion.

"They look like a whale and a toothpick!"

But as catty as schoolgirls could get, they had to concede, seeing Kei and Ruka move on the Dance-U pads with their on-screen counterparts was quite a sight.

"Wassamatta, nephew? Can't keep up with your preggers half-eaten Christmas Cake of an old Auntie?"

"Funny-I was going to ask you if you could keep up with your henpecked browbeaten womanizing crybaby of a nephew."

They laughed, and picked up the pace for a full hour or more. One of the girls watching came over as they finished, their watchers clapping.

"Wow! What are you two, Immortal?"

Kei nodded.

"Yea, pretty much. Umm-you girls better stay back. I was-in a public bath with a group of extreme otaku when it was struck by lightning. I fear their perviness might've transferred to me."

The girl thanked him, and walked off. Haruka glared.

"Really?"

"Well, these girls are all kids. I doubt I'd survive an accident here."

Haruka downed some ice water and shook her head.

"You'd never strip them, Kei-they're not family."

Since the international skee-ball competition Grandma had taken on in Atlantic City had passed through Japan, new stands had cropped up and stayed up, along with an odd type of funnel cake known as the zeppole. The day was working in their favor. Aunt and nephew were having a good time together. While it was likely not their last such day, the rare would only become the rarer, so they drank in pure stupid fun for all it was worth.

"Huh? Why are we going this way?"

The path Haruka took them on went from family-safe halls of fun to a place where even the video strip mahjong games looked tame. Keitaro knew this was an area of hardcore gambling, where fingers and toes might well be the price for welched-on bets. The structures were likely newer than the arcades they'd just hit, but already looked seedy and run-down. Then there were the people.

"She's sitting over there, as always."

It only took a minor look to silence a slightly confused Kei, something Haruka seemed grateful for. The older woman had a familiar look to his eye, but he couldn't place it, until Haruka stood right over her.

"Hey!"

"Hey yourself! All knocked up, I see-is he what did it?"

Haruka shook her head.

"He's just family that I drafted for my protection in these seedy neighborhoods. So how are you?"

"Me? Heh, girlie, I got some hot numbers just waiting to be played. Pay off the whole wad, ditch this ugly burg for a flat in Enoshima...yeah. Have you got some help for an old lady to make her stake?"

Haruka smiled, and offered up a note of decent worth, at least to Kei's eyes. This was not the case for the note's recipient.

"Heh-ya know, this was good enough when you were a cute little kid, running up to say hi. But if you're not gonna bother to adjust for inflation-"

The older woman sneered as she tucked the money Haruka gave her away.

"-then take your fat ass and don't bother coming round here anymore."

Kei saw Haruka begin to shake visibly-and saw her eyes redden. By instinct, he hurried her away, not bothering with a sneer of his own. By the time they had truly left that neighborhood, Haruka was openly sobbing. Kei found a place to sit them down. His anger at seeing his Auntie cry meant he almost relished the thought of someone accusing him of making her cry. Happily for the sake of busybody passersby, no one did. After about ten minutes, Haruka finally spoke.

"She's-she's always been like that. Just never so openly. She was-she was-"

Kei finished for her as the solid grownup held the seeming crybaby.

"-your father's mother? I could see it in her face, from pictures I've seen of Uncle."

She put her head on his shoulder.

"She has never once guessed who I am. Even when she was sharper, I think her mind was too focused on gambling. She's been going on about that flat in Enoshima since I was twelve. God, what's wrong with me, Kei? I was told what she was like, first by Father, then by Grandma. I could see what she was like pretty early on. But once every year, I made sure to come by. She was funny once-but she pretty quickly became pathetic."

She pulled back, just a bit.

"Am I gonna end up like her? Will the baby, or Sarah-or you-want me around when I do?"

Kei held his breath, then took two finger-edges and pincered Haruka's nose.

"Baka! Don't ever insult my Auntie like that. That old woman was old when she was young. My Auntie can be three times her age and still be terrific!"

Of course, she punched him.

"The baby needs all the air I can give it, moron."

Leaning over her fallen nephew with a smile, she offered a hand up.

"I think I need more shopping. You just gonna lie around all day?"

A man now firmly in love and loved by several gorgeous violent women shrugged off the blow and helped a woman who could have been any number of things in his life pick out clothes for when she was ready to wear them again. Boxes in hand, they entered an elevator to the next floor. When it suddenly stopped, Haruka groaned.

"With you in an elevator, and it gets stuck. Sounds about right."

Kei was so overjoyed to see her back in form, he didn't want to break it up.

"Hey! It's not my fault these things happen."

"And yet, here we are, with you around in my eighth month, entering my ninth, and the elevator gets stuck."

Haruka felt the pointless blame and argument like fresh air in her lungs, and would have hugged her nephew, except teasing him was just so much damned fun. So of course he had to end it.

"Eighth? Ninth? No-that's not right."

"What's not right?"

Kei shook his head.

"You learned you were pregnant in early September. You were pregnant before and during Molmol. You said you and Seta had last been together in late June or early July-"

Haruka saw that he was serious, and for some reason suppressed a shudder.

"Yes? So what? Out with it, kid-my math has never been that good."

Kei raised a finger in the air, and looked nervous.

"The baby's math must be even worse. Auntie, if you've been pregnant since July of last year, then you are not in your eighth month going on your ninth month-"

His eyes showed panic as he kept on.

"-you are in your TENTH month, going on your ELEVENTH!"

Haruka leaned against the elevator's opposite entrance.

"Which means I could-at any time-literally any time-but I've felt it move-how could I possibly-Kei? Are the rules different for our kind?"

Kei almost winced. It was the first time he could recall such a blatant description of a subject they tiptoed around.

"I don't know. Most of those-other Immortals-can't have kids at all. Granpa's diaries said that the company clerk from the 4077th MASH in Korea was one-but we're not like that."

Haruka felt an unbelievable pressure start to build.

"Okay-umm, nephew?"

Kei nodded.

"It's time. I know it's time because I just figured some secret out while we're stuck in an elevator. Alright-this is no time to panic."

Haruka suddenly had a craving for latkes and taiyaki.

"No-I'd say this is the perfect time to panic. On my mark-we two will together do what Urashimas do best when adversity first rears its head. Okay?"

"Okay."

Trapped in an elevator, two family members with a seemingly impatient third on the way did indeed join together to do what many an Urashima had done, in the initial phase of a crisis.

"WAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!"

**Next Chapter : Hope Of Delivery**

_(To my patient readers. I'm sorry this chapter took so long, and was so comparatively short. I plan to be faster with the next chapter, and have more in it. But with my new job, taken in the fall of last year, plus other sundry crises, I have been so badly pressed for even the illusion of time. I hope this is enough for the moment - 'Goji' Rob Morris, 11PM EST, January 14th, 2012)_


	11. Chapter Ten - It's Enough To Make Kings

**Chapter Ten - It's Enough To Make Kings And Grandmas...**

_**1978**_

Awa Urashima heard a noise, and hoped it was Haruka up and about.

"What is that?"

A portal opened above him, and a figure wearing what vaguely looked like a slim line version of an astronaut's suit emerged.

"Awa-you are needed. Will you accompany me?"

The figure removed its helmet.

"Please? It's really important."

Awa rubbed his eyes and shook his head.

"My granddaughter is ill. I must stay with her-especially this night."

The intruder offered words of comfort.

"She'll be okay. I can guarantee it. But she also needs you to be somewhere that-you normally can't be."

Awa asked the newcomer to explain themselves, and they did.

"You'll have me back to this exact moment?"

"You have my word."

Awa left for the second most fantastic journey of his very interesting lifetime.

_**2002**_

PERSONAL JOURNAL, HINATA URASHIMA, AGE 155

_I was so furious with him, I couldn't see past myself. How was it I had become the hard-nosed banisher?_

_My beloved boy restored me to life. What he unleashed in doing so would have been far worse had it been my life sacrificed to the would-be masters of the Red Gate. But none of that mattered to me. In the end, I am my father's daughter, prone to excesses in the name of order. Yet even in that, I am a filthy liar. I sent my Kei-Kun away because, while I always profess to want my wanderings to cease, I love life and its little pursuits more than anyone could imagine. Anyone -including myself._

_I decided to seek answers from of all people, a psychiatrist. I hid my agenda, as I always have and likely always will, in this case by tagging along at Alice-Chan's request as she and Arlo-Kun settled the sorry matters that arose between them. Arlo was never a disobedient boy-he was as devoted a boy as my Kei-Kun. Alice was never a beating parent, making excuses and blaming her child for what she did. But underneath his quiet acceptance, his anger was growing and so was his self-loathing, fearing he was driving her to this. Shinobu was going with them in these final sessions, in part to be near Arlo while keeping to their mutual promise to wait on that private thing a young couple wants._

_Yet what she still truly wants most of all is Keitaro. Our sweet Shin-chan has grown in mind, body, soul and in every measure any parent could want or hope for. But I see it in her eyes, as I see it in all my daughters' eyes. She would, at his word, lay back on the futon or run off with him wherever he asked to go. They all would. Because they all still want him to be theirs alone. Even the woman who will be his wife wants that, because Naru knows that, while he will never stray (though I have heard the girls half-joke about a lewd onsen 'festival' when he turns thirty) his heart is not a one-woman place, and his attendance to their sisters speaks of a love only slightly lesser than he has given to her. I adore my Naru-chan. But I cannot help but feel this is fit punishment for her past treatment of him. Not merely the hits and strikes, mind you. When one takes her strength and his durability into account, at least some of that is just what couples do in testing each other. No, her true punishment is for the crime of causing their love to nearly die in the desert of her pride and goal-driven blindness. This is not a crime I am wholly unfamiliar with._

_So she will continue to be confused by her man's harem of the soul. In this, she is hardly unique._

Arlo had made as much of a confession to Shinobu as their own nerves would allow. But now he made a confession of a wholly different sort.

"I mean, he is a nice guy, and I admire his determination. I admire-his restraint-towards Shinobu-chan. I don't know that it is a restraint I could truly emulate."

Alice could not resist the opening her son had left.

"In fact, we know for a fact that you couldn't emulate such restraint."

The young man blushed, and his young woman blushed with him.

"Mother! Anyway, I like and respect Kei-San. But-apologies, Shin-chan-I just can't figure out how it is this skinny clumsy guy who seems to gather supreme embarrassment of ecchi proportions like weeds in an untended garden also manages to hold the attention and even the love of some frankly incredible women."

Shinobu smiled. The compliment to her and her sisters was not unappreciated. But her advice would tend a bit harsh.

"My advice, Arlo-Kun? Stop trying to figure it out. I did, and as a result I simply loved him from the start. This enabled me to keep my head while the others tore themselves-and him-apart. As for all the ecchi incidents? They really weren't."

The psychiatrist took this moment to interrupt.

"I've been-I've been trying to improve my-my Japanese. But this term ecchi seems a bit of a catch-all. How-exactly do you define it in this instance?"

Shinobu stopped and thought.

"His face has fallen into all our chests. He's seen us all stark naked at the worst possible times, and we have seen him. His grasp while falling seems pre-set to grab at our clothes and expose us in public situations. The other girls often responded to this by administering beatings that were almost carnal in nature themselves-sometimes causing ever more embarrassing and untoward situations. Kitsune-I mean Mitsu-rubbed up against him and tried to get money. She never got all that much, but she kept right on rubbing. I respond by cooking for him a lot."

Doctor Robert Hartley was professional enough to not let Shinobu's beauty and charm overwhelm him. But not noticing her at all was simply not in him.

"That would-that would be a good-a good situational definition of ecchi."

Shinobu tried for an explanation that would satisfy the doctor and the one who wanted to be her man, with some added restraint thrown in for the presence of Alice and Hinata.

"Did you ever sort-of know someone, and remember them fondly, and wished and wondered about if they'd been able to stick around? What would have been if life hadn't taken them off, the way it seems to do to most people? When I first met Sempai, he hurt me horribly by lying to me about entering Todai. But he apologized profusely, and every time I hinted that maybe he didn't mean to lie, he corrected me and said a lie was a lie, and that he would have to earn our forgiveness. Still later Auntie Haruka told me that his lying was partly prompted by her own wrong assumption and our own refusal to let him speak. Even when I mentioned this to him, Sempai still insisted that it was his choice to lie after a certain point."

She smiled.

"Even before the first time he tried to run away, I knew he would be a part of our lives for good. No Super-Punch, no sturdy bokken, no jump-kicks-well, and no frying pan used in treacherous despair would deter him. I loved him for that alone. Each turn of events only made me love him in all new ways."

Arlo tried to joke a bit, being both touched and a bit put off.

"Does he have a sister?"

Hinata answered this.

"Yes, but my granddaughter is clinically insane."

Doctor Hartley took offense at this.

"That's-that's kind of a harsh judgment to pass around. People um-like myself, like to be the judge of that kind of-kind of thing."

Hinata offered Hartley a one-minute history of Kanako Konno Urashima. He nodded.

"I-I think she may be beyond the help of most clinics. Still not the worst I've heard."

Arlo was annoyed at the interruption, but Hartley's words intrigued him.

"Well, who was the worst?"

Hartley fudged a bit.

"Can't divulge names. But-she was a samurai who was really devoted to her sword."

Shinobu shook her head.

"We know a samurai like that, Doctor."

"No, no-Miss Maehara. Not-like this."

The group all wanted to know what Alice asked.

"How devoted are we talking?"

Hartley realized he had broken a huge rule, but there was now no way out but through.

"Alright. In this case, before her family intervened, she was so devoted to her sword-"

All winced at his words.

"-wedding invitations were being printed."

Arlo resumed his end of the session.

"That-that is devotion. I guess what I want to know from Shinobu-Chan is : will I ever occupy a similar space in her heart, or am I a last-minute fill-in for a man she can never have?"

Shinobu shook her head.

"I can't answer that, Arlo-Kun. Because I don't know the answer myself. Sempai seems to look at me in a fatherly way, nowadays. But in my feelings for him, I am not a proper daughter."

Arlo took this in.

"Shin-chan-I need time to make my choice, based on what you've said. Will you accept and respect it, when I'm done?"

That he didn't storm out or insult what Shinobu saw as her dithering moved him up in her eyes.

"Of course. I will wait for you-and for your words on this matter."

Arlo turned to look for other answers, and for this he spoke in a borderline respectful way to the woman who gave him life.

"Mother-will I always remind you of the man who abused your innocence and your love? I accept that if it must be. But I would really like it to not be that way at all."

Alice had not been 'traditional' for many years now. Even for that, she was still much more open in the privacy of the group sessions.

"It isn't merely your father I see in your face. It's also that of my own father, the free-living radical who suddenly became a fundamentalist. Of late, the one I have seen too much in you is myself. Unable to please a parent who is too harsh, only able to be noticed when something miniscule is off, and therefore excoriated for it. I have wanted to praise you. You deserve and have earned praise."

The young man still did not look pleased.

"The blows I can take-I think they've made me tougher. But this praise you say I have coming? Why wasn't it mixed in with these slaps and punches? I knew the praise was perhaps hiding behind all the glares, scrapes and admonishments. But at times, it was far too well hidden."

Her own pain at maybe losing Arlo aside, Shinobu chimed in.

"I've wondered about that too, Alice-San. The night we met, you praised your son to me. But Arlo-Kun seemed shocked when I told him of this."

Hinata placed a hand on the shoulder of a woman many decades her junior (even if her true age had been closer to what most thought it was) and offered support.

"It is time, Alice. You need no longer carry this alone."

The strong woman, whom Haruka and Emi Kashigawa saw as second only to Hinata, was showing signs of barely kept back tears.

"Shin-Chan, my relationship with Arlo's father was far more like yours with Kei-Kun, up to a certain point, than I have led you to believe. He was not 'cool'. He was all but disregarded by my former Onee-Chan as a fool and a weakling. But I loved him always, and praised him endlessly. This raised his confidence."

Shinobu caught some of the rest.

"Which, of course, made her see him in a new light. She took him seriously, and suddenly you were out."

Shinobu bit down for a moment.

"My sempai took in my praise, and what comfort I could give. His confidence did grow. But I don't think Sempai Naru ever dismissed him totally. And he always tempered his growth with knowledge of how far he had to go. It sounds like Arlo's father let it go to his head."

Alice continued.

"He had her, but he would always run back to me when her harsh words - and she knew words the way Naru-Chan knows a right cross - would wound him. Then his ego would inflate ever further, to the point where I thought only the surrender of my innocence would let me keep him at all. My poor gamble on this cost me everything, till all I had left was Arlo. I treasured him, but I also feared him. For wouldn't he have to leave me as well, one day?"

At a nod from Alice, Hinata let loose with possibly the harshest truth either young person had heard up to this point.

"Alice did not move into the Sou merely to have a place to stay. Her father had offered a small home well away from his own. But there, she would have no one to safeguard her and her baby."

Arlo felt the truth, but it hurt too much to really think of it.

"Safeguard us from what? Was my father trying to kill me, to hide his shame?"

Alice looked down, and forced herself to look her son in the eyes as she confessed the worst of it.

"No. To him we were easily forgotten. But I considered killing you, and I moved to the Sou so I could be watched. These feelings passed. I gained my sanity back. The first restaurant, and then the restaurants that followed, were my way of keeping myself so busy and you so vital to me that these feelings would never return. They never did-that is to say, the worst of them never did."

Arlo had too long felt like a pawn, as regarded the events that brought him into the world. But it was a position he accepted. He loved his mother, and a lot more often than other children faced with battering, knew full well she loved him. To Alice's credit, not once did she even utter or consider contemptible phrases like _'Look What You Made Me Do'. _But nor did the hitting ever stop, whatever his behavior. Arlo even recalled a period in his early teens when he had an attitude he felt deserved some discipline, yet there was no change in the amount of times Alice would strike and repent. Angel or no, Arlo had to accept it would simply happen.

"So it wasn't enough to blame me for a face I never chose? You wanted to kill me as well?"

But Arlo was now past accepting the unacceptable.

"You're not a bad person, and I do love you, Mother. But why am I to be stuck in your head as the product of your unjust ruin? Please don't tell me that I'm not, because, Doctor's visits or no, we keep coming back to this point. You apologize, and I accept with the hope that things will get better. But things were never better, were they?"

He now turned on a girl he had rapidly grown to love, and while his words were carefully chosen, his tone was one that would have gotten him a beating from every current resident of the Hinata-Sou.

"You want Sempai Kei to dump Sempai Naru. You want him to abandon his high morals and take you like you once offered. The night we met, you blasted him like a spoiled brat. You've made it clear who you want, Maehara-San. It isn't me, and yes, it hurts just as much on this end as it must have for you. Except I realize that no amount of holding on is going to change your mind. I also know why Kei chose Naru. Better a direct bombardment of sublimation-based fists than a sweet affection that never knows where it is going!"

That Arlo chose then to bolt was no surprise. But Hinata made an attempt to stop him nevertheless.

"Arlo, remember that this session is meant to expose such wounds as you now feel, so that they may be cleansed. Isn't it best that you see this through, and have done with these pains?"

Arlo bowed to her.

"Grandma-Dono, you have been a light and a comfort my entire life. Now, I am also told, you saved my life when I was helpless. I honor you, and praise you to Heaven. But do not tell me these wounds will heal, and these pains done away with. Next week, during a stressful shift at our place in sight of Fuji, Mother will grow angry over potatoes delivered late and not fully peeled in time for the lunch rush. Tomorrow, Shinobu and Kei will find that fog or steam caused them to miss each other entering the onsen at the same time, and both will exchange blushes that both will deny to my face. And I will be struck for a late delivery that I played no part in. And I will not see that blush fade, even as we kiss goodnight. These pains are not done with. For I merely adjust and accept, and they stay largely the same. Because Kei and Shin are, some history and background aside, the same person. But I am different now."

He stormed out, and this time no words would call him back. Hinata saw Alice look down, and saw Shinobu blank. Alice seemed to be stirring, so Hinata chose the one she thought was worse off.

"Shinobu-Chan, it is alright to cry if you must. We will all understand."

Shinobu did wipe her eyes-and then her mouth. She stood up.

"Many thanks, Grandma. But I choose not to cry. Instead, I choose the example of my Sempai, my Onee-Chan, my friend Naru Narusegawa."

Alice looked up in horror. Possible hypocrisy went out the door in the face of protecting the one she loved.

"Shin-Chan, if you hit him, I swear..."

Shinobu smiled.

"No, Alice-San. You see, my man has fled me in panic, anger and fear. I am obligated to run after him, no matter how far it takes me."

A determined Shinobu left, and Hartley broke his silence.

"You know, as bad as that got, I think we may be talking breakthrough here. But-but Alice? I think, before you talk to your son again, you should make a mental list of what you do and don't expect of him. Because leaving things vague has apparently lost its appeal for Arlo."

Hinata took it one step further.

"I have new respect for this psychiatry. Perhaps an outsider is sometimes needed in these things. But I will raise the wager on Doctor Hartley's advice, Alice-Chan. You must also ask you what you wish and expect of yourself. For too long have you operated as though your family's betrayal was only made yesterday, and it is no longer yesterday. A deep assessment is indeed in order."

Despite their age difference and the debt Alice owed this woman, Hinata had long made it clear she regarded the entrepreneur as nearly a peer, so deeply did she respect Alice's accomplishments. But now that peerage would prove a difficult matter for Hinata.

"What of you then, Urashima-San? I have shown that I am fragile in the matter of showing my love to my son. But you, who I have always looked to for strength, are now a weakling in the matter of your grandson. He brought you back from the dead, Hina! But all you can do for this miracle is show him the back of your hand. I am sorry that your father cursed you-and yes, I knew-some of your 'stories' of Japan's past seemed suspect for me. You have endured, and sometimes even when you were tired of life. You ask me to task myself, and I tell you : Stop preparing for death and instead hug the stuffings out of a grandson you owe many debts besides that to. Whatever you are planning now, stop playing the Great Demon and just be a Grandma to a boy who may now need to hear how good he is even more than my Arlo."

Alice excused herself, and a tired Hartley tried to wrap up.

"Mrs. Urashima, I'm glad you came, but I think this session is done. Well-well done."

Hinata tried to obfuscate some statements Alice made.

"Doctor, about Alice's upset rantings about death and curses, I would consider that the source was a badly upset woman."

Hartley chopped her gentle lie off at the knees.

"My-my mentor in this field was a man named Sidney Freedman. But he was born Soolaimon-Ben-Moshe in Roman-occupied Judea about the time Caesar was stabbed. When his wife and stepdaughters were killed by four barbarian immortals called The Horsemen, briefly in the service of Herod, he was killed and became Immortal. He-he blamed the child they were searching for that night. You-you might have heard of this child. They celebrate his birthday in late December. After a life wide and varied, Sidney was killed by Hunters of his kind in 1994. I know all this because I once sat in for Sidney at the anniversary reunion of the army unit he oversaw in the Korean War-the MASH 4077th. By the by-Hawkeye says hi-and still looks like he's thirty-five."

Hinata smiled.

"It is, it seems, a very small world."

She got up, looking a bit less diminutive for her verve.

"It is, it seems, time to make my world larger once again."

PERSONAL JOURNAL

_So much is coming together now. Kaolla Su has learned responsibility without losing her wild loving edge. Mitsune now finds as much thrill in doing her new job as she does in emptying bottles. Motoko loves two men, one she has accepted will not be hers, and one she wishes to find out about. Mutsumi is chastised by her inability to be intimate with those she loves, so much so that she fails to see this is merely nerves. But even in her upset, I see growth, that one so perfect in my eyes can aspire to more. Shinobu is simply becoming even more wondrous. I wish I had spare grandsons for them all, but I doubt this would turn them from Kei._

_Blessed Naru no longer needs to beat the man she once saw as weak, and no longer needs to trip over herself outrunning the weak little child she once was._

_Alice was right, and little Sarah was right - except I have no plan, no great scheme. Once more, I was prepared to die, and once more, I was thwarted, and once more, I turned on one I love for making me live again._

_Foolish old woman, to love life so much, and keep one eye on the grave, like it was some comfortable bed. Life is the comfort, and what lies after it may be a comfort if one has earned such, but death is no end unto itself._

_There is only one way to make things right between me and my Kei-Kun. The problem is, it also involves making peace with another, less forgiving sort._

_I have always prided myself on keeping in contact with everyone I have ever met, however ancillary, and aiding both them and myself when I have need of them. I will do so now._

Hinata picked up her cell-phone.

"Go there and aid the one I send. No masks will be needed."

She hung up and dialed another number.

"This is Hinata Urashima. Yes. Do you wish to be forgiven your antics? Then follow my instructions precisely, and be thorough in the job I set you to. My granddaughter will aid you. Huh? Will she? Well, since you are both obviously insane, there is that chance. Ask her."

Hinata texted the instructions, and then went for a leisurely stroll through bustling Tokyo.

"I feel-Haruka, is today your day?"

But a woman who wandered only needed to find a certain grave for now, so she took her children of all types out of her thoughts.

Across town, two people stuck in an elevator were at odds.

"Do I have to do this?"

"Yes! I need a pillow."

Kei removed and balled up his trousers, placing them behind Haruka's head as she tried to lay back.

"Are you all right, Auntie?"

She smacked him.

"No, I'm not alright. I'm ten months big, going on eleven, I'm having contractions, and we're stuck without medical aid. So don't expect me to be nice, Keitaro."

Her glare was withering, but then withered itself.

"If, on the other hand, nephew, you wanna be nice to me, I won't hold it against you."

Kei sat down, accidental immodesty concerns not present for a woman who once changed his diapers.

"Could this be a false labor?"

It wasn't a dumb question, so Haruka calmed a bit.

"I don't know. What I do know is, I was so worried about Grandma, I let concern about this pregnancy go. Whatever this is, we can't even let anyone know we're stuck. Cell-phones are blocked by all the metal in this elevator, and the cheapskates who run this shopping center let the elevator phone go into disrepair."

Keitaro thought of something.

"Maybe we can still place a call. What if there were someone both I and the baby have a connection with?"

Kei placed his hand on Haruka's stomach. Rather than roar at him, she let him grasp at whatever straw he was about.

"Trying to put me on simmer, there? Kei, this had better work."

At Tokyo University, one student felt her hair-bangs vibrate. She turned to the student-teacher who was her love and rival in love.

"Naru? Kei and Auntie need us. It's the baby. It's coming!"

Naru nodded and snarked at this.

"Well, she's only been pregnant for..."

Naru, who was very very good at math, now did some on Haruka's pregnancy and her eyes went as wide as when she peeped on Mutsumi's brother in the onsen.

"Oh, Auntie! The one thing that is a woman's province beyond dispute, and you have to be a bigger fool than your nephew about it!"

The two women made for the shopping mall, leaving voice mails for a warrior and a princess - but not a Warrior Princess. There have been too many crossovers in this story as it is.

Motoko realized now that the months of lessons had truly paid off. At the re-opening (after months of intense diplomatic wrangling and not some few bribes – or 'grants' as the paperwork called them) of the Molmolian Embassy, its Duchess, Princess, King and new Queen stood as the young Princess outlined reforms that were vast and deep for the island kingdom.

"We will no longer kidnap the nationals of, nor we will violate the airspace of, other sovereign nations!"

Like was said, these were reforms new to the island nation. Others were to follow.

"Also, our special services agents will learn to place the lives of all in their charge, and not stick guns in people's faces while wearing slasher smiles. While the units will remain in their current formation, from now on, Men will said to belong to The Kei Corps, and Women, to the Toko Corps, to honor those who taught me about honor and responsibility. However, the men will not stammer while they fall into the bodies of, and disrobe the women in Buster Keaton-esque slapstick; Nor will the women live in denial of the men proclaiming their hatred, when really they want some but have deep-seeded Freudian issues that prevent their speaking of this."

Motoko now wished her Urashima were there. Being stripped and exposed on that level was preferable, somehow. Someone familiar sat down next to her.

"Mitsu? How did you get across the city so fast?"

Mitsu Konno watched Su continue to speak in a manner that induced both awe and shock. Mostly shock.

"Suffice it to say, I'm getting better and faster at my chores as I master my powers. Powers such as teleportation, which got me here."

Motoko smiled inside. Only Mitsu could use the powers of the gods to become both more and less responsible at the exact same time.

"I thought teleportation pulled an Urashima on you, so to speak."

Mitsu winced when Su promised to reconsider the 'ancient and sacred Molmolian goal of fundamentally remaking the world' if the world around them stopped being so corrupt and noisy. For some reason, all the college students cheered the last part. They were holding manga compilations.

"Sigh! Go Nagai fans, figures. Well, as to my clothes-ditching, that still happens. But now, I carry a set of clothes bundled up in my arms. Kanako suggested using my senses to scout out a place where I could put them on in privacy. Seems to work. I move fast, so all anyone gets is a glimpse of underwear, if that. I'm trying to work on porting into my clothes, but they never go on right."

Motoko groaned as Su promised to find a cure for 'Cankers', as they often annoyed her as well. A Molmolian agent corrected her on the disease in question, to which the nonplussed Princess merely replied : _Oh, That Too!_

"So you are talking to Kanako now?"

Mitsu fought back an image of her, Kanako and Motoko 'ganging up' on Keitaro in the onsen, while a bound-up Naru watched and raged. She just didn't fight against it too hard.

"Well, she's either my sister or the sister of the man I call Bro, so peace is probably a good idea. Plus, now that Kei made his choice, I get her bitterness somewhat. I guess I always thought there'd be enough time to tell him I was serious. That it wasn't just me getting off on boob-rubbing the nervous nerd."

"But you did. Just as I was sparring with him the moment he walked in, having shown Shinobu his King Keitaro-err, his manhood."

Mitsu stared.

"You know Shinobu said he was not all there, that way, right?"

Motoko shrugged.

"Shinobu lied to protect him from our wrath. She had no sense of -specialized size- at that time. He is not like Mutsumi's brothers, to be sure, but is, to parse out Naru's infuriatingly vague descriptions, merely average."

Mitsu laughed, both at that statement and at Su's half-hearted apology for the 1943 kidnappings of Emperor Hirohito and President Roosevelt, in a Molmolian attempt to force peace in that part of the world.

"Average, schmaverage. I want proof, and I want a series of test-drives. I want a bab-"

Her snark cut off by the rising of her own feelings, Mitsu seemed to be on the verge of shaking apart. The clouds stirred, and the rains began, ending the ceremony. Kaolla and Amalla Su, King Lambda Lu, and Nyamo all piled into Mecha-Sama Platinum and grabbed up their friends. Su activated the flying vehicle's force-field and dried off Mitsu's hair.

"Thanks, Mitsu. I was running out of promises to make."

Mitsu saw the image of herself and Kei smiling over a newborn bundle of joy fade, as it always did, taking a piece of her with it as it went.

"Politicians never run out of those, Su-hey, my phone."

Answering it, Mitsu directed the Princess.

"Auntie is just about to give birth—Naru says to make for the hospital nearest Escalade Mall."

Su made the course change.

"Why that hospital?"

Su's question was casually answered by Motoko.

"Auntie and Urashima are trapped in an elevator, at which time the baby chose to begin labor."

All looked at her, and Mitsu shrugged.

"What can I say? I may not have won Keitaro Urashima, but I know him. Plus all three involved are Urashima by blood. Drama must be involved. Likely humiliating, mostly accidental nudity as well. Damn Auntie's luck!"

Nyamo whispered to Su.

"Is it me, or has she revised her opinion on Keitaro since last we all met?"

Su smiled.

"She's just more honest about it now. It was either that or face heart medication and buttermilk."

Nyamo darted her eyes about and then whispered.

"Are we still on for Kei's thirtieth birthday?"

Su activated a very localized sound dampener, and still whispered.

"Never talk about that with any other guys around—and I haven't gotten the others to agree to you yet."

Lambda Lu saw the grin on his Queen's face.

"You two-you aren't planning a shopping spree, are you?"

Nyamo shrugged.

"My King knows his queen and his sister all too well, I fear."

She whispered back to Kaolla Su.

"You said I could body-switch with Shinobu that night?"

Su cut off the dangerous conversation.

"Working on the tech. I tried it out on those two friends of Keitaro's, but I can't tell them apart, anyway, so we'll have to see. Now shushie, or I kick your tushie!"

As a hurt-looking Nyamo sat back down, Su rolled her eyes.

"Immigrants."

Not too far away, the man who was the focal point of much of their lives struggled with a choice that was no choice at all.

"Your—your pants?"

Haruka nodded.

"Panties too, Kei. Now get them off me. I'm set to go at any time, and I can't get ready without help. Oh—and I'll need that shirt of yours, cause your jeans are leaving a crease in my head."

Four years of coping with his 'harem' had made Keitaro Urashima a tougher man. Gone was the nerve-ridden mass of jelly that would snag Motoko's robe-flap, and instead of calming down and leaving, just kept blindly pulling while her rage increased. No more was the guy trading increasing shades of red blushing with Shinobu. The woman who once pounded him to paste on a regular basis now took a pounding of a different sort from him.

"EEEEP! Auntie, I can't do it!"

Or at least, he had been gone.

"I can't remove your clothes! Let's wait for some help, okay?"

Haruka offered the natural counters to his trepidation.

"You've seen me naked, you ninny! You saw me in Molmol, and you spied on me in the onsen. Hell, except for size, we were still bathing together when my boobs first came in. There may not be a woman in this world you haven't stripped or walked in on. Is it delivering this baby has you ready to explode?"

He calmed for a moment.

"No. Naru and I took a course from some EMT's, after September 11th. We both know the whole procedure."

This brief calm frustrated Haruka all the more.

"Then what is the hassle about? I don't need the wimp you were—I need the man you've become. NOW GET MY CLOTHES OFF, NEPHEW! Blouse and bra, too—I'm sweating in positively ungodly ways."

As said, the calm was brief indeed.

"Noooo! It's different just seeing you that way. I can't be the one that makes you naked. Auntie, don't you get it? We've all but confessed to each other. You're the one that made me realize we could have been."

"But you did undress Motoko."

"I haven't known Motoko for longer than I've been able to think. You and my mother were my first images of beauty. That's too deep in the software for me to just shake out."

Kei had expected a 'these-are-the-facts' answer, one which would have made him overcome his out-of-place nerves. That was not what he got.

"AT LONG LAST, YOU STINKING CRYBABY, SCREW YOU! I DON'T HAVE ANY MORE TIME TO WIPE YOUR BEHIND, KEITARO. YOU DROVE AWAY YOUR PARENTS, AND YOU DROVE AWAY GRANDMA. I AM ALMOST ALL YOU HAVE LEFT, TILL THE DAY NARU WISES UP AND SEES YOUR NEW SPINE WAS INFLATABLE AFTER ALL!"

She had been ready to further rant against the hurt look on his face, but this was replaced by something she had never seen her relative direct against her.

"Fine. First, the blouse and bra."

That look was one of pure rage. This look, which had rapidly replaced a hormonal/loving one, shocked her out of her own tantrum.

"Kei-"

"Not—another—freaking—word. Or I will let that immortal baby kick around inside your immortal insides, and see how high your pain threshold is."

While it was immediately clear to Haruka the line she had crossed (her condition aside), it was only as Kei ripped her blouse off and simply pulled her bra over her head that Haruka realized the worst of it. To Kei, this had to seem the second time that year that a female relation had trashed him for no good reason.

"Hey, a little rough, don't you think?" 

"I said SHUT UP!"

A different set of nerves was in play. Ironically, the hurt she had never meant to deliver had hit him harder than every last snark or aside she had said during all their times together. But as he raised her legs to remove the rest of her clothes, it seemed like he was trying to talk himself down. A slight mischievous grin came over him, just enough so that Haruka covered her chest without realizing it.

"Alright, Auntie, let's get these pants off you and make a baby together!"

Her belt and zipper were already undone, and her panties moved with the pants, so it was a quick motion. But both Urashimas had forgotten a fundamental fact. As a general rule for the family, and specifically with Kei, their luck was abominable. This was evidenced directly when the elevator doors finally opened. Naru and Mutsumi were at the front of a gathered crowd, all of whom seemed to have cameras at the ready. Cameras that were aimed at the incredibly vulnerable Haruka Urashima. To drive in the final nail, pain caused Haruka to surge forward, scream and bite down. While she was thankful no flesh of any kind was felt when she bit down, the cloth that was in her mouth completed the day's ruin.

"I just tore off Kei's shorts, didn't I?"

The cameras now jumped between the very naked Urashimas, till Kei stamped his foot down.

"Damn you, are you all perverts? This woman is delivering and needs immediate medical attention. You get it for her NOW, or I will hunt you all down like dogs!"

Naru was shocked to not see her man a stammering mess (which she would have easily forgiven under these bizarre circumstances) and seconded him in a major way to overcome this shock.

"There's a perfectly innocent explanation for this folks-I-have no idea what it could possibly be, but I know these people, and there's no way they would let their Auntie/Nephew fetish go this far on purpose…"

Mutsumi leaned in.

"Not really helping, Naru. You get in front of Auntie, and I'll get in front of Kei."

They did this, to block the crazed picture-seekers, but a problem came up as Mutsumi stood in front of Kei with her skirted back to him. Her eyes went wide as she backed up a little too far.

"Kei?"

"Sorry, Mutsu."

So Naru and Mutsumi quickly switched places, which gave the camera-frenzy another opportunity. Su and company arrived, and her tech magic had the nude properly clothed. The mess was beyond even Mitsu's ability to snark over. One outraged busybody stopped Motoko.

"Did you see that disgrace?"

Motoko nodded.

"I know-I could have been a part of that, if I'd gone with them today. Damn the luck twice again!"

King Lambda Lu was taken aback.

"Here I thought Japan was such a dull place. Do these shows occur often?"

Mitsu finally found some snark.

"Only where Kei's involved. Once he's in, some female somewhere is going to get naked. Just today it wasn't us."

Motoko shook her head.

"That's right, Mitsu—rub it in."

Su commented while setting up her Sama for transporting Haruka.

"Toko is getting weird."

But active hormones or no, old habits die hard. Motoko addressed the crowd.

"You will destroy those photos."

The response was predictable.

"No way, witch!"

"Double Platinum!"

"Super-Viral!"

"Fetish Nirvana!"

Motoko smiled. This would help her work out her tension.

"I see. You have chosen to mistake my statement of fact for a request."

She withdrew her sword.

"As the saying goes, it's not the sword that I really want to wield…"

Naru withered as Motoko cast a loving glance at Kei.

"…but one makes do. You should see my cousin. She almost married her sword."

Said sword made silicon mincemeat out of cameras, cell phones, and the like in a heartbeat.

"You must understand. The images on those devices are the province of my fantasies, not yours."

The harried group departed for the hospital, where Seta and Sarah awaited. Though feeling the contractions, Haruka stopped the attendants..

"I have to speak to my nephew!"

"Auntie, we can settle all that later. Neither of us meant what we said."

She shook her head.

"Not a chance. It has to be now—because you have to know, Kei-"

Once, there was a little girl massively insecure in her looks. That girl now returned.

"—Go To Hell, you pervert. You really do get off on exposing girls, don't you? Some of those photos had to survive, and I will be totally exposed to the world within hours. Forget being an uncle. I don't want you anywhere near my baby, or my family. I—will never forgive you."

"But you told me to take your clothes off-I didn't want to!"

"Yeah—and you sure timed it down to the worst possible second, didn't you?"

Haruka was led off to delivery. But her nephew raced in front of the stretcher. If Haruka had heat vision, Kei would have been burning.

"I have not one word more to say to you."

Kei grasped the rails surrounding her on the stretcher.

"Well, I have one for you."

He did not want to say it, but wounded pride and anger took hold, and brought a word that Kei had not let enter his head, even during the worst of his tenure at the Sou. If his mouth had not been so dry, he would have spit it out.

"Bitch."

So tense was the situation, had Haruka not been about to deliver, she would have gladly leapt up and tested the family immortality. Kei would have welcomed that test.

Outside of each other's sights, both began to cry their eyes out, as though in mourning. The ones they loved best of all held them close while they did.

In the background, a small figure shook her head.

"Hina—what have you started?"

Grandma wished her plans were the masterpieces everyone credited her for. Because to help her grandchildren, she would need one. None came immediately to mind. When a hint of one emerged, she looked for someone neither combatant would ever dare yell at, aside from herself.

"So where is Shinobu?"

To answer Hina's question was to first ask where Arlo Guthrie was. In front of Harashina's Department Store, he uttered a name.

"Arlo Harashina. Or would it even have been Arlo?"

He walked in, realizing as he had very early on that this man would never have given him his name, would never have married his mother when doing so would have ended his chances of running the store his wife's mother's father left him by default.

"I'm here to see your senior manager."

The clerk looked very suspicious, this despite Arlo being well-dressed and groomed.

"That simply doesn't happen without an appointment, and I can guarantee that you don't have one."

Arlo had known that this would not be easy, and so had come ready with a plan to bypass this sort of obstacle.

"He was friends with my mother and her father when he went to Todai. My mother's family name is Guthrie. I merely wish to pass on her wishes to him. Then I will leave."

He reasoned that it wasn't a complete lie, though his mother's wishes were likely among the things Harashina did not want.

"Wait here. Don't move, or touch anything."

Since Arlo wanted nothing of this man save a face to face meeting, he did just that. But as an older man in uniform and five much younger men in the same security uniforms joined him, he knew that his behavior was not needed as an excuse for his biological father to move against him.

"You have a lot of nerve coming here. What does she want?"

It was as bad as Arlo feared. The twenty-plus years that separated them could not even disguise who they were to each other, at least in body.

"My mother wants nothing of you, and nothing that is yours. Nor do I. Just by letting me meet you this once, you have given me all I could want of you. I now know all I need to know. I've never come in here before, and I would like to never do so again. She doesn't know I'm here, and would likely be angry with me for even coming in your door."

If there was anything left of the charm that had convinced a young girl named Alice to take leave of her common sense, Harashina no longer displayed even a little of it.

"You honestly expect me to buy that nonsense? I've had your names and pictures on a watchlist since the day you were born. I've had people conducting surveillance of you both."

"And yet you seem to not know us at all. Harashina-San, our business is done forever. Now, let me go, because you have no cause to hold me."

A slap came across his face, but Arlo reasoned that he'd felt worse from a tougher, far more worthy parent.

"Don't sass me boy. You owe me life."

_*He is nothing like Sempai-Kei, who respected and loved my Shinobu enough to keep his hands off of her. No wonder Mother can't stand to look at me now.*_

"Is that the life you urged a scared young girl to end before it got started? Sir-why didn't you just tell your clerk that you didn't want to see me, and that I should leave? I wasn't going to raise a fuss. Why do you live in such fear of a man who walked in the door and tried to say hello?"

Arlo thought again of the man he'd been bitter about, and some of his questions about Keitaro Urashima were answered. Better an accidental over-apologizing pervert, thought Arlo, then a deliberate, unrepentant one.

"I have an arrangement with the police about shoplifters I catch. If I say that you are a shoplifter, and have you taken to the back areas-will that convince your bitch of a mother to keep under whatever rock-"

If he had been admiring Kei the prior moment, Arlo chose to emulate Kei's fiancée in the next. Harashina hit the floor from one solid punch to the jaw.

"Please call my mother a bitch once again, sir. I wish to bring her your head."

Before the enraged, important (and self-important) man could yell for Arlo to be dragged off, a new player emerged.

"Harashina-San! I demand that you honor your agreement with me! I will not be put off!"

A young woman now set out to prove how much she was over Keitaro Urashima.

"Who is this?"

The pushy clerk from before had no luck trying to grab Shinobu.

"Harashina-San, we couldn't stop her."

Shinobu's face showed no fear, and in fact even showed rage.

"Look, Manager-San. When you hired me last year, you said that giving up my innocence to you would have me in the big leagues. Well, I'm through waiting. My attorney is on standby, and he knows I came here, so don't bother with these thugs. Shall we make the other girls like me bold with accusations, or do we settle this here and now?"

The guards began to murmur.

"Not again."

"Does Manager ever have his pants zipped up?"

"Well, apparently not. Not when they're underage."

"The Missus ever finds out, she'll chop..."

The older guard barked and silenced them. Harashina gulped.

"What do you want? How-how much?"

Shinobu suddenly gained a thoughtful look.

"No money. See, I know you'd renege on anything that took yen out of your pocket. No-all I want is a guarantee of positive reviews every year. Some great, some glowing, and all issues resolved before promotions come round."

She looked at Arlo.

"Oh-and let this little nothing here go."

Harashina shrugged.

"What has he got to do with this?"

Shinobu chuckled.

"I heard you getting hot and bothered over whatever it is he did. You want to rip him to pieces - and I want to deny you something you want. See, you might pull out on our deal. This fool's fate is my guarantee that I win out on something. It's how I do business."

Harashina was by then so flustered, he waved them off.

"Wait-what department do you work in?"

Shinobu used her strange ability to summon a piece of metal. She swung the skillet like a gunslinger.

"Cookware."

She pointed a stunned Arlo towards the exit.

"Umm-honey? You DO know how to use a door, right?"

The two walked out, and it was hours before a very weak man realized he had never gotten the girl's name. It was days later he realized he had never gotten anything from the girl at all.

Well away from a place they and their circle would strive to avoid, the two embraced.

"My mother may be Alice, but Baby, YOU are the greatest! How did you pull that off?"

Shinobu kissed him and then giggled.

"I figured an arrogant slime like that must spend so much time covering up his affairs, he couldn't keep names or faces straight. I just pretended to be as greedy as him, and he fell for all of it."

She shook her head.

"Arlo, why did you go to see him, when you knew he might be like that?"

He breathed in. She had called him Arlo-no title, no nickname, no honorific. By some standards, she had all but declared their engagement.

"Shinobu-"

Seeing her light up at a similar effort on his part helped him keep on.

"I had to know for certain. To finally understand the pain he put my mother through. To know that she once wanted to kill me-that knocked me out. Before I saw her again, I had to see what she had fled. A twisted old fool who cheats endlessly on a wife he's obviously terrified of. Both of them hurt my mother. They deserve each other. I can stop hating myself, because I know I'm nothing like him."

Shinobu was still smiling, but moved to chide the boy she increasingly saw as hers, though Kei would never entirely leave her heart.

"Why would you need to prove such a thing? What could create a desire to show that you were not anything like that lecherous bully?"

Another had sought out Arlo the moment he had bolted from Hartley's office. Unlike Shinobu, she had been less certain she wanted to find him. If not for this, she would have located him in a heartbeat, for she had known him before he had the face that had earned her undeserved wrath.

"I created it, Shin-Chan, and that is my real crime against my son, more than any slap or scrape. I created his need to prove who he wasn't, rather than living as who he is. But that changes now."

Alice's aspect had always been that of a joyful woman fighting off the look of a dour one. But the joy had clearly taken hold, and the dour had taken leave.

"Mother, you cut your hair-and you dyed it. Why?"

Perhaps thankfully, Arlo would never mistake his mother for his girlfriend, though only twenty years separated the two, and Alice's active life kept her in good shape. But for the first time, Arlo could see traces of the kawaii ingénue his amoral father had seduced and abandoned, and also for the first time, he almost sympathized with the old man's hormones-almost.

"I've let stress rule me-rule us-for too long, kiddo. I'm not letting it destroy me anymore. I've turned over a new leaf, and I'm selling the restaurants-all of them."

Shinobu couldn't believe this any more than Arlo.

"But Alice-San? What will you do for money?"

The day would come when Shinobu would take her boy from her, and give back a few more in return. For then and there, the girl who chose a sempai of low worth merely hugged the one who chose a sempai of great worth.

"We have money, Shin-Chan. I've saved relentlessly and moved cautiously on new openings for better than fifteen years. The sales will bring even more. Hell, I'm worth more than that bum whose only good action was to give me my wonderful son. Both he and I will never want, so long as we're not foolish or extravagant. My aim was to emulate Hinata-Dono in having enough wealth to retire on. My mistake was in forgetting that even she went too far in that pursuit."

Shinobu completed a thought she had been having for months. She had theorized that, at one time, Arlo's father had perhaps been as worthy as her beloved Kei. Following that logic, she frustratingly realized that it may well have been his weak-kneed choice to oblige the young and foolish Alice that made him the wretch he was today.

_*So Kei and I could never have been, without waiting till I was at least of age-and knowing my family plus my sisters at the Sou, probably well past that to boot? Oh, Sempai-Arlo is right about me. I am pathetic. Do I have to give you up entirely, just to find my own happiness? Because, for what now seems so very long, you have been all my happiness.*_

"Mother, you can't retire-I think the stress of doing nothing would kill us both."

Alice really looked like a different person. She hadn't treated herself to anything resembling a makeover since becoming a mother, and then launching on the path of her successes and her sorrows.

"I won't be doing nothing. I don't know what I'll be doing, but it won't be nothing. As to you-I'm going to ask Hinata to let you run the Sou's Tea Room. That should give you and my anxious-for-it counterpart something to do-besides each other, that is."

The two younger folk blushed mightily at Alice's innuendo, precisely as she intended. But now Arlo seemed to be holding back tears.

"What will I do without you?"

Alice grabbed the boy who had come to her when she was still only a girl and held him close.

"You will have to learn. I need time to exorcise my demons, Arlo. I want no more part of your pain. I will come back-when I have at last grown up. And when I do grow up-I want to be just like you."

If there was a time to say certain things, it was then, and Arlo did not waste the opportunity.

"You were not part of my pain. The only pain I felt was from thinking I displeased you-that maybe you hated me."

Alice gently swatted his right cheek with two fingers.

"I hated the foolish choice I made and I hated those who selectively punished me for it. The precious consequence of my choice is something I have always loved, even when my vision was blurred by the shattering of a young girl's dreams."

She then turned to the one who is ultimately always a mother's true rival, and if she is lucky, her true heir as well.

"Haruka-Chan told me a lot about how you dealt with your emotions for Keitaro. Shin-chan, can you at least promise me my son will receive better?"

Shinobu always felt awkward about this. Somehow, in her own mind, the two hits she gave her Sempai were somehow worse than all the other ladies. In fact, he only held the slightest of grudges for the one blow she struck from behind during the madness in Molmol. Given all the other madness, even that he would have to be reminded of to speak about, and up against the tender love the two held and always would for each other, this was nothing at all.

But Shinobu being Shinobu, she took Alice's words doubly seriously.

"I admire Sempai Naru's determination and beauty, her intelligence and drive - but her methods of courtship-not so much."

"I will require one other promise-"

This one was whispered, and right next to Shinobu's ear. She blushed, then agreed. Arlo was given a pair of firm looks that told him what he already knew - not to ask. He did however check his cell-phone, informing him of the impending delivery of Haruka's baby.

"You two keep all the secrets you want. I mean, you will anyway, right? But we need to get to the hospital, to see the birth of Hinata-Dono's first great-grandchild!"

With many though hardly all wounds salved and acknowledged, the trio made for the hospital listed in Naru's text message.

But behind them, from around a corner, the older security guard watched, waited, and then tailed them all the way to their destination.

Once at the hospital, Shinobu did something once unthinkable for her.

"No, Grandma, I will not do it."

Hinata had crafted one of her fabled plans to reunite her fractured family. But it had hinged not only on the family's universal love for Shinobu, but also her unquestioned obedience, thought until then to be a given.

"But Shin-Chan? Am I not Grandma?"

The older woman was invoking something sacred, as well as a love nearly as strong as Shinobu held for her grandson. But Shinobu would not obey, yet nor was she being disobedient.

"You are more my grandmother than my father's own mother-at least the one I knew. For you, I would walk into the gates of Hell. But not even for you will I trick my sempai."

Hina began to dearly wish she had stayed and toured the New Jersey Shore that September day, when everything went so very wrong. Since then, she had witnessed an unspeakable event, scorned her loving grandson, alienated her twice-again daughter, and now saw the mildest, and once the meekest of her extended clan tell an elder to shove her schemes. Politely, of course.

"Suppose this trick is for his own good? I have pushed him away, Shin-Chan, and now he and Haruka have done so to each other in turn. Will you not aid me?"

Shinobu looked to her young man, who shook his head.

"Hey, she's practically my Grandma, too. I'll hold your hand and stand by you, but I'll do it nervously."

Shinobu briefly made the odd realization that this notion of kinship to Hinata almost made the lovebirds cousins. While it certainly wasn't by blood, and not even legal in any sense, it both thrilled and threw her off, if only a bit. It seemed that the home she loved so much would provide her with two great loves. But the owner of that home wasn't done with her just yet.

"Will you refuse me if I make this request my will in this matter instead?"

Shinobu had to end this before they all got hurt, and she moved to do so.

"I will ask you not to make it an order, Grandma. I would never refuse you no matter what, if a matter like this is also your will. But-instead of a trick, why not simply hash matters out as adults? Both your grandchildren are that, even if they're upset with each other right now. And-I think maybe-forgive me-you owe my Sempai an apology. He risked so much to prevent you from leaving us. It was out of devotion, not willfulness, that he rescued you from your fate."

Hina hesitated, smiled lightly, and cupped Shinobu's right cheek, marveling at the small wonder.

_*Kei-Kun? How did you resist claiming so tender a love as hers? I must have raised my children far better than I realized. I am glad for you and Naru, but if it had been you and Shin, I might even have allowed a wedding at sixteen. She is a lioness for you.* _

"I suppose the time has come for me to face the music and dance. But it's alright, I've always liked dancing."

Shinobu had known the precise balance between obedience to an elder and asserting herself, knowledge she nowadays often displayed (when her nerves weren't overriding her common sense). But Alice, who felt newly freed of her old burdens, tended to forget this still. Her experiences and toughness almost made her a peer in Hina's eyes, but the decades were still there, and still needed to be heeded.

"Well, Hina-Chan. Perhaps you could stop dancing in circles and go to see your children before you become a great-great grandmother!"

The snark was not vicious, but it was a bit out of line, and Hina spotted someone behind Alice, Arlo and Shinobu that enabled her to tweak her kohai-in-shop keeping's nose.

"Alice-Chan, I will promise to go and see my family immediately on one condition - if the opportunity should ever arise to reconcile with yours, will you seize on it just as quickly?"

Had Alice not been so high on her new insights and outlook, she would have surely noticed that she was walking into a trap.

"Since we both know the likelihood of that, why not? Yes, I promise to not pass up the opportunity you mentioned, nor similar ones to ride on a comet's tail."

Hina pointed behind the group.

"Then would you like to swing on a star-or would you rather be an ass?"

The trio-and future in-laws-turned and saw the older security officer from the store where Arlo had confirmed the worthlessness of his biological father. Shinobu looked a bit concerned, and Arlo looked a bit like he wanted the potential confrontation that seemed likely. But Alice looked shocked, and ready to bolt out of the hospital. For she knew the man who had tailed them all too well. Yet it was not with the greatest of affection that she finally identified him with a single word.

"Father?!"

The four stood silent for long enough to let Hina duck out and approach Haruka's hospital room.

Gathering both her courage and information, she listened outside of it as Naru found herself in the perhaps-karmic position of peacemaker between two who would not listen to reason.

"You know - it might be an idea for you two to reconcile before the nurses finish cleaning up the baby."

Haruka had delivered almost instantly upon reaching the hospital. But other things would not be so instantaneous.

"Oh, Yes. Let me reconcile with the pervert who just put me on every otaku's splashed-on computer screen for the rest of this century."

Haruka felt a little of the young girl who enjoyed holding her cousin/nephew urge her to dial it way back, and Keitaro felt the same of a little boy who worshipped his very pretty Auntie. But a pair of grumpy, confused adults were in charge, and slap-back seemed the order of the day.

"Well, why don't I try and be an obedient nephew, try to talk sense into a woman on the verge of hysteria, and maintain respect and love for someone who thinks my real name is 'Baka', who responds to compliments with fury-OH WAIT, I DID, didn't I?"

Naru paid back a small but noteworthy portion of her debt to the man she loved in that moment. Staring into his rage-etched face, incapable of calming down or being calmed down, indeed incapable of listening, she thanked God for the miracle of their love surviving her own stupidity, while quickly demanding another such miracle.

"O-kay. Here's the way we're doing this."

She shoved her man in front of the hospital bed, and turned his head to face that of his first love. She crunched the bed's railing in one hand to show Haruka she meant business, and she at least looked directly at Keitaro. Naru smiled, and turned her back on the two.

"The way you two fancy each other, you should already be doing weird things by the time I turn around...NOOOOOOO!"

The two were strangling each other-which was in theory utterly pointless, as neither really needed air any longer, nor could their neck or throat muscles give out. But they kept on all the same, and Naru at last pushed them apart.

"NOT-at all what I meant! Now calm..."

Each threw a punch at the other, and again Naru meant to block the blows. She succeeded, but unfortunately, she did so with her head. The force of the blows sent her face-first into the wall, where she left a perfect impression. She managed to utter a few words before falling out of her Naru-dent and then fainting.

"So-this is what that feels like-"

A man who meant to be her husband and a woman who had often acted as her mother scooped her up and into the bed, feeling only a little ashamed of their hurtful anger. One managed the first civility.

"Can I ask how the baby is doing?"

One was not so willing.

"She's still naked from being born. You'll have to wait to strip her."

Kei got right up in her face. His respect for (and fear of) women had started with his Aunt. The limits of his patience, it seemed, also ended up there.

"And how long before she turns on me like a viper?"

Haruka folded her arms.

"All the times I pleaded with you to man up, and it takes disrespecting me to make it happen?"

Kei's glare seemed fit to melt his glasses.

"Disrespect? I've obeyed every wish you've ever asked of me. As to manning up, one light slap from that lovely girl on the bed instantly made me more of a man than a million of your disdainful shrugs."

Naru caught every word; getting up to respond to it was another story.

_*Wow. Immortal or not, how Kei got up again after every blow makes me respect him makes me love him all the more-and despite this, I will kill him for hitting me. Auntie, I'll wait until the baby is in college. THEN I'll kill her-oooooh-if I can ever get up again. Owww-I feel like Mutsumi's entire family fell on me, chest-first.*_

Haruka cried out.

"OTAKU!"

Kei crossed the line twice.

"CHRISTMAS CAKE!"

That the otaku had a fiancée, and the Christmas Cake a husband, never entered into an equation with equal fury on both sides. Haruka slapped Kei. He grabbed her hands and was ready to spit.

"I have had enough-of you!"

Kei slapped Haruka. She was now set to claw at him.

"You don't slap your Auntie!"

They went on exchanging slaps, till Kei stopped in horror.

"You're bleeding!"

The blood was flowing, and wounds that normally closed as they opened were doing anything but that.

"Don't be an idiot-I don't bleed for but a few seconds-any more than you do, but...you are."

The bathroom mirror showed the story, which a rousing Naru confirmed.

"Figures. Same blood. You're not proof against each other. Heh-also-you two act so stupid around each other, when there are times you're so focused its scary. Don't you get it? You two are only amazing-when you're on the same side."

Tough love was the order of the day, and a reforming violent girl was not holding back in either part of that phrase. She looked at her man, on who it was slowly dawning that he had struck a woman capable of making him regret his immortality.

"Kei. My Love. Forget respect. Forget obedience. Hasn't this past year taught you that Auntie's orders can't be trusted when her emotions get the better of her? Mind you, that doesn't happen so often, but if not her hysterical amnesia, what about the fact that she took so long to decide to marry the only man she's ever loved-or at least the one that wouldn't have her locked up for nepotistic incest? Auntie is pretty, Auntie is strong, Auntie is sharp-but when it comes to emotions, she's actually a bigger idiot than you. You at least have the sense to shake apart when you're overwhelmed. She just bludgeons on straight ahead, full-steam, no questions asked. But you've actually changed-somewhat. Stop worshiping her so much that you obey an incredibly stupid order like stripping her. I joke about a fetish, but the truth is, you wimp, you can't imagine saying no to her. Normally, that's sweet. But now it's put you at each other's throats."

Before Haruka could fire back in any way shape or form, Naru was on her like Su on a banana.

"Auntie, you are my third mother, and the one I've dealt with the most. Despite my studious good-girl fixation, you had to kick my ass as often as Mitsune's, and I thank you for it. I could tell that one time you wanted to pound me for a slam-session I had on Kei, but you left me with a word to the wise. I followed Kei in calling you Auntie, not because I saw an old woman or any sort of 'Cake'-God I hate that crap. But because an Auntie is a pure loving thing, and you love so much, you felt compelled to make your disdain into your whole public personality. Yeah, you're not lovey-dovey-except when it makes me wince-but you are not the queen of rolling eyes and shrugs that you try and make yourself out to be. And somewhere in putting on that front, you let yourself think that you could Haruka yourself through even a potentially terrifying experience like bringing forward a new life."

Haruka was still their elder, and challenged the girl she helped raise.

"Proof that I was as stupid as you claim. Proof, kid-not declarations and amateur insight!"

Naru folded her arms and smiled. She pointed back at Kei.

"You ordered the Cosmic Emperor of Embarrassing Women to undress you in a venue where your privacy could not only NOT be guaranteed, but in fact, was already almost guaranteed to be compromised. You told a man whose hands have a magnetic grip built into them for panties, bras and bikinis to make you naked in an elevator for to deliver a baby you have to know he would have fainted at the first sign of the head coming out. You claim to know your nephew. Tell me, would you leave Su in an electronics surplus store? Old School Kitsune near a vintage liquor cabinet? Your Husband near an antiques district?"

Haruka would never entirely change, so her challenge to Naru's logic kept right on.

"Well-shouldn't he know me? Shouldn't he be man enough at his age to tell Auntie 'No' and mean it?"

Naru fought off a chuckle.

"You would have killed him, and as you just demonstrated, you're one of the only ones who can! Auntie, in case you haven't noticed, even Grandma euphemizes heavily when she disagrees with you and wants you to do something else. You're a holy terror, Lady."

Haruka sighed, at least nearer to giving up the fight.

"I'm a holy terror whose goodies are now on permanent public display. They'll all see me."

Kei was fighting a bit harder to stand down, but it was still a near thing.

"A bunch of lonely geeks will see what I always have-that my Aunt is very pretty..."

Haruka's hand lashed out, almost against her conscious will, but Kei grabbed it short of his face. He grimaced.

"Is that what this is all about? Again? AGAIN?!"

Naru caught on, having faced this down herself.

"You still think you're this ugly duckling? My God, Woman. You've got the face, the boobs, the butt-a commanding presence-and we still have to revisit this sorry corner of your world? Auntie, the sisters of the Sou are all hotties, and you are the eldest and the hottest of these. From the flat to the air-cushioned, we make men shake apart - especially our brother, who happens to be my man. He thinks you're hot, so don't you insult my man by saying you're not. Don't you dare say our Auntie isn't beautiful."

Haruka finally looked at her nephew.

"What about saying that Auntie is a Bitch?"

Kei finally had begun to look like himself again. Naru found herself valuing every shake, every hesitation and every blush as he attempted his trademark goofy smile.

"You called me a perverted monster."

Haruka shook her head.

"Every woman you now call sister-even Shinobu-has called you that."

Kei's retort was gentle, but no less firm.

"Even Grandma has called you a-that word."

Naru's words on the limits of their immortality kicked in once more. On a verbal level as well, these early friends and somewhat-crushes were the only ones who could hurt each other. The only fight that was now on was the one to hold back the tears. Keitaro lost this, of course. Haruka opened her arms.

"C'mere, ya damned little crybaby-and let this big crybaby hug the stuffings out of you."

She did, and he did, and only when holding her own newborn child would Haruka feel anything this tender on that day. Kei then began to choke from lack of air.

"Auntie, I can't breathe-"

Between her grip and his face too near her chest, his air was indeed limited. She smiled.

"You still got Auntie's goodies on the Net. You still have to be punished."

She released him.

"So you will perform a song for Auntie-just like when you were a little boy-got me?"

Kei's face sank.

"No, Auntie! Anything but that!"

"Uh-Uh. Exactly that. Accept my terms, and all is forgiven and forgotten."

Kei sighed, and Naru saw the same look he'd gotten when he'd been forced to cross-dress for a play. Since she herself had been the one to force him, she felt another of her guilt twinges.

"Hey, does this have to happen? You're both sorry-and you stripped him as well."

Kei held up a hand.

"Honey-I will do this for Auntie. I will sing her song. And May God Help Us All."

Naru winced.

"Oh God! It's not _"I Love Mister Piccolo"_ is it?"

Haruka rolled her eyes.

"Hey! Even I'm not that vengeful. And yet-it will be memorable. I will set up the venue, nephew. Your word of honor to be there? One crybaby to another?"

Kei nodded, and inside, he was happy. He would not have to face life without his oldest friend.

"One little crybaby to one big one, Auntie."

A cue had been met, and one who was through listening made her entrance.

"Could I be so bold as to suggest that you add to that mix forgiveness for a crybaby who is both smaller than Kei yet bigger than Ruka at the same time?"

Grandma's timing was of course, perfect, and she was welcomed with open arms. Yet after strong embraces, words were still needed, even in a seeming ocean of them.

"We three need to speak of many things. But before all that comes-where is my great-grandchild? This old woman needs to see a new baby-one whose crying is more legitimate than ours."

Naru looked at the hospital room's doorway.

"Uhhh-they were cleaning it up, and then Seta and Sarah were supposed to bring it in here."

Sarah had been sent with her father to keep him focused. But Naru, once more very good with math, saw how much time had passed while the family feud was settled. She whipped out her cell-phone.

"Motoko? Tell Su to locate Sarah ASAP! Just-just tell her to invent something then. Why? Because I think something is really, really wrong!"

PERSONAL JOURNAL, HINATA URASHIMA, AGE 155

_It seems that, even if we begin to abandon ego, turbulent times are still able to be with us with all of no notice. But as I await my baby's baby's baby, I have at last taken the baby step to heal the harsh wound I struck upon my wonderful grandson. _

_But oddly, I feel as though something even more wondrous awaits me. A presence I've not felt in decades. I am tempted to say that this is impossible, but to say that in the world we know would be even more foolish than I have been in these last months._

In the parking garage basement, a glowing pod emerged with two passengers - a young woman with bleached purple streaks in her hair and an older man who was supposed to be long dead.

"I should not have come with you-my granddaughter needs me."

The young woman shook her head.

"I told you. Your granddaughter will be fine. It's your great-granddaughter who needs your help right now."

Awa Urashima shrugged.

"So where is my great-granddaughter?"

Noriyasu Seta and Sarah McDougal came running around the corner, a precious bundle in Seta's arms. For once, the goofball was completely serious.

"Help Us!"

"They're after my little sister!"

Indeed, seven figures in armor, of varying heights and builds, were bounding after them. Seta got an inspiration.

"Sarah! Pull down an artifact and clobber them with it!"

"Dad! That's not a superpower-it's more like a sublimation for how I like Kei, expressed in some weird psychic thing Su tried to explain to me while we watched the Flintstones. Did you know Su thinks Bamm-Bamm was really from that universe's version of Krypt-"

The armored figures were firing on them, so Sarah tried anyway.

"Uhh-I can't do it unless it's in misguided affection!"

The time-traveling stranger put her hand on Sarah's forehead.

"Sarah-do it for your little sister. Your affections for her are mixed with jealousy. That should be enough."

Sarah rolled her eyes at the interloper.

"How do you know?"

The woman winked.

"Because you told me."

Sarah grinned a mile wide, felt huge confidence, and did what was asked and needed of her.

"Eat some of Uncle Hank's boulder, you jerks!"

Indeed, a rounded boulder that had once chased Old Hank down the halls of an ancient temple now blocked the armored intruders. Sarah looked at the newcomer.

"Dad! She's-"

Seta hushed his adopted heart.

"Please, Sarah-even I figured that one out. Young lady-why are you here-and who is this man with you? He seems oddly familiar."

From another entrance, the sisters and brother of the Hinata-Sou joined their friends and family. Keitaro breathed when he saw the baby was sleeping and safe.

"Seta-get upstairs-your wife and Grandma are getting worried."

For once there was no need to push Seta into action. He wanted to be with the woman he loved, and he wanted his children away from this battle-front. He was who he was, and would be again, but the goofball managed to pull one out without even glancing at the hieroglyphics for the Order Of The Ancient Destroyer near the hospital's snack lounge.

Back in the basement, before Awa and the visitor could be questioned, the boulder began to move. Motoko gestured.

"Urashima-ready yourself!"

All of them did just that, and saw the boulder splinter apart from one armored figure's movement- a movement backed by sword and bokken. Motoko almost swallowed her tongue.

"Those katas-impossible?"

Above them, floating gun emplacements were taken out by Su's focused mini-EMP blaster, but the girl who could navigate a football field full of banana peels almost fell over as she checked the guns.

"I didn't build that-but I must have?"

Mitsu's opponent kept stealing things from her. Mutsumi's kept falling on her, never missing.

Shinobu was covering her ears as sonics pummeled her mercilessly.

"That one has got a set of lungs on her-wait is she crying to make that happen?"

Naru's opponent was clear on the other side of the room from her.

"Heh-sorry. I'm not getting up close and you can't hit me from way over-"

The opponent's fist seemed to travel the distance like their arm was stretching, and yet it didn't. Naru was as stunned by strained physics as she was by the punch. Kei seized a bazooka Su tossed his way and opened fire on his pursuer.

"LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!"

The shell caught the attacker full-on. He went crashing through the ceiling, flying so far into the sky, he could no longer be seen. He came back down to Earth, crashing through the garage once again. The opponent then staggered to his feet. Kei's eyes went wide.

"No Way! No one could have survived that except Auntie and-"

Kei made the connection, but he hoped he was wrong.

"Su-get their helmets off!"

Excited to have her Kei direct her, Kaolla Su obliged.

"Gotcha, Onii-Chan!"

Rocket powered claws raced around the attackers, doing exactly what Keitaro Urashima had asked.

At least, what the Keitaro Urashima they all knew had asked. The one now facing them, at the side of six girls they all also thought they knew, was another story. Mitsu said the obvious, but in this case the obvious was what needed to be said.

"That's us-they're-they're us!"

Mutsumi immediately saw that the presence of the others was wrong on more than one level. Kei looked more lanky, even more geeky. Naru's smile seemed less warm somehow, and she always looked ready to strike. Shinobu looked somehow more fragile. Mutsumi's own counterpart looked like the airhead she'd always taken jokes about being. Su looked enough the same, yet even more furtive, and one of her teeth looked like a single fang over her lower lip. Rather than being features on her face, Mitsu's bangs and mouth almost looked like they were her face-and her tomboy aspect seemed more tom and boy both, her figure aside. Motoko, whose counterpart seemed almost more sultry and sharp-looking, questioned Mutsumi while keeping an eye on the intruders.

"Are you seeing anything odd about them-besides their presence?"

Mutsumi almost had a non-anemic fainting spell, but caught herself.

"Yes. Their movements are hard to take in. They seem so-so-"

Kei chimed in.

"So-what, Mutsumi?"

Mutsumi found the word she was looking for, just as the alt-group once more began their attack.

"So-animated."

_**Next Chapter : A Little Less Conversation...**_


	12. Chapter Eleven - A Life Less Animated

Chapter Eleven - A Life Less Animated...

NOT THE HINATA-SOU WE KNOW, 2003

"Yahhhhhhh! They're crazy!"

To be fair, Keitaro Urashima was used to running for his life, and it was also not unusual for him to be running from this group of ladies.

"Sempai Must Stop!"

"Big Brother Is Making The Wrong Choice In This Thing!"

For the most part. Usually, those two young girls were not part of the bunch trying to tear him to pieces.

"C'mon, Little Bro! It's you an' me, way it's gotta be!"

"She's too indecisive for you! I'm obviously...ohhhh."

Of those two women, one had never seemed to be head over heels, and the other he thought had accepted his choice.

"She fell asleep in the middle of the chase? Really?"

Now, the woman by his side was usually the worst of his punishers. But now, she was also set to be punished for having openly kissed her man in front of them.

"Don't complain, Narusegawa. She tripped up Motoko, and if we speed up now, we can get away!"

They huffed and puffed while her Sou-sisters tripped over Mutsumi and argued, and made it to a pay phone.

"Keitaro-use it to call Haruka-San on her cell-phone! She can corral them."

Keitaro did just that, but made a major mistake.

"Hello? Auntie? It's Kei-"

The blaze of automatic machine gun fire that spewed from the receiver shocked but really didn't surprise the newly declared couple. Naru grimaced, but held back from slapping him.

"You know better than to call her Auntie!"

Keitaro took her hand and kept running.

"She's with Seta. Says they're going to a place called - Toudai."

She smiled at him, and he for once overcame his nerves and smiled back.

"Keitaro, do you realize what this means?"

"Yeah, I do!"

They looked each other in the eye with joy as they spotted Seta's plane, its ladder lowered as other unknown planes pursued it. They spoke as one.

"The lovers go to Toudai!"

But as they spotted an enraged Motoko just behind them, and the others not far behind her, the world went blank. The world then also suddenly grew heavy, so heavy even Naru could not move.

At least for then and for there, these lovers were not going to their Toudai.

THE WORLD OF OUR STORY, TOKYO GENERAL HOSPITAL, 2002

"How the hell can they be us-when we're us-ummm-we are us-aren't we?"

Naru's question was not merely to Kei, but a plea to sanity itself, which, while not always an ally of the Hinata siblings, seemed to be slacking off especially hard on that day.

Kei had no answer for his woman. One of the youngest members of his group grabbed Mutsumi before she fell over.

"Mutsumi, what did you call them?"

Mutsumi Otohime had psychic abilities that were mostly undefined, and that she simply spoke of as listening and seeing. But she was glad Shinobu held her fast, for both senses caused her pain then and there.

"They shouldn't be here. They shouldn't exist here. They're not from here. The life force that animates them is not of this place."

The attackers held back for some reason, and Motoko made the next observation, while calculating how best to beat herself.

"They look like us, if someone streamlined our forms and faces. I would wager their minds and souls - their character - are also simpler."

It was the sort of observation that would normally have Naru snarking if not ranting about the logic and process behind its reasoning. But it had a very solid feel and truth to it, almost undeniable despite its thin-air summoning.

"Okay-but if they are us, then why aren't they talking? We're not known as a reticent bunch, last I checked."

Kaolla Su did some digital voodoo on her laptop, and came up with an answer.

"That armor has control elements in it. They're getting a signal-ohhhh-but I can't jam it. The tech is based on mine, but someone really played with it."

Mitsu's trickster mind was already working on the dilemma.

"Su-you didn't clone us, did you? I remember you taking our nail and hair clippings, before we could sign up for Molmol's army."

Su seemed offended.

"I did take them, but only for if one of you died or got really hurt. Besides, those wouldn't be enough to attempt cloning. I'd need a recent mouth swab, blood-a whole lot of things, and even then-"

She pointed to her unmasked counterpart.

"Do you honestly think I'd give my double an overbite like that?"

Shinobu conceded that point for the group.

"They do seem a bit much-especially the other Mutsumi's eyebrows-errr-eyebrow? But why did they stop attacking?"

The situation had Kei as close to freaking as he had been since almost the first night he returned to the Sou. But he had become the leader of his family, and like it or not, that meant keeping his head for then and there.

"They're trying to keep us here, and away from helping Auntie, Seta, Sarah and the baby. They may have other operatives after them. Ladies, charge them! We have to break through!"

Unfortunately for him, keeping his head and using it effectively were no guarantees of victory. Motoko's leap was snapped back by a surge from the alt-Kitsune, her rubbery grin briefly breaking through as the samurai fell. Shinobu was nearly doubled over by alt-Motoko's bokken before she could take more than a step. Naru was shocked by a prod that the super-fast Alt-Su kept sticking her with, always just out of reach. Alt-Shinobu nearly nailed Mutsumi several times with her frying skillet, till a glancing blow forced her back as well. Mitsu tried teleporting away, but alt-Naru's reach was simply insane, and Mitsu soon tired out. Kei, flustered from watching his friends and loved ones fall, didn't notice alt-Keitaro walk up and just push him over. In a pile in the corner of the garage, the Sou siblings tried to regroup. Mitsu offered her usual snark, but it was not at all an arrogant snark. Like all the others, that had been beaten out of her by the invaders with their faces.

"We got beaten back worse than a Sentai just before their first Henshin!"

Shinobu was forced to agree.

"Even in the American Power Ranger dubs, they got more hits in than we did."

Mutsumi, normally the picture of calm, felt her rage grow at seeing the weirdling duplicates of those she cared for, and the two she loved best of all.

"They shouldn't be here-there's a wrongness about them-I think it's putting us off our mark."

Motoko seemed a bit calmer. There was an opponent, and she was by the side of the man she loved, even if he would not be hers.

"Doubtless, they are made right for where they belong-umm, or maybe they're weird even there. But Urashima is right - this attack is meant to occupy us. Note how they fail to press their advantage, even now."

Naru was staring directly over at her counterpart, and was clearly fuming.

"There's something about her I really, really, really don't like. Mitsu, can't you call down the lightning and fry these phonies?"

Kei seemed to take note of something while Mitsu shrugged.

"Hey, I've been trying. But I have to get them into position. You, me and Bro may be Immortal, but not everyone here is. Position means concentration, and since the other Naru seems to be the daughter of Plastic Man or Reed Richards or something, I don't have a prayer - no matter who my great-grandfather is."

Su threw her laptop down. She looked near tears, and she couldn't meet Kei's gaze.

"Darn it! I'm programming up a storm, but the other me must have a mental link set up to counter any efforts at hacking their armor. Onii-Chan, I'm so sorry!"

Kei held her chin tenderly, and wiped the few tears that emerged away.

"Su? We all know you did your best. Besides, while tech helps us and hurts us, we at the Hinata-Sou are strong because we care about each other, whether we're getting along or just getting on each others' nerves. And that's just how we'll beat these posers. After all, if Motoko is right, then they're simple and we're deep. Heck, it'll be like a battle of manga vs. anime!"

Seta, Sarah and the new baby finally arrived at Haruka's hospital room, where once more her man knew enough of his woman to calm Haruka immediately.

"No one ever touched either of our girls."

He handed the sleeping baby over to its mother, where its great-grandmother waited next to her. Hinata had seen many wonders, and many horrors. But her grandchild/great-grandchild held her transfixed.

"She is beautiful. You two have every cause to be proud."

Seta smiled and looked at his wife.

"Now?"

She grinned, having forgotten this plan in the excitement of the day.

"Do it!"

Seta shook his head broadly.

"I just don't know if she's really mine."

Sarah hid her smile, and despite Haruka's own smile, Hinata reacted with shock to the assertion.

"How can you deny this child is yours? Are you accusing my daughter of being an open-legged slut?"

"Thanks, Mom. But I..."

"Because she hasn't been that for a great many years now!"

Haruka rolled her eyes.

"Thanks, Mom."

Seta stood his shaky ground.

"Nevertheless, I'll need a DNA test, and until then, I can't sign the Birth Certificate."

Haruka shrugged.

"You bum. Oh, well. The baby will just have to use my family name till all this is resolved. Here, Mom. You hold this poor unfortunate bastard child. Hey, deadbeat? Is it all right if I give her the name we chose for her?"

Seta seemed too calm for someone who had slandered a very tough family.

"Suit yourself."

Hinata held the baby, and again perhaps the tender moment had her sharp brain on overload. So Haruka sprang the rest of her loving trap.

"Mom? Will you witness the naming?"

There were times when an overlong life seemed well worth the trouble. This was that for Hinata.

"Of course."

Sarah was allowed to complete their play-acting.

"Then Hinata Urashima-meet-Hinata Urashima."

The old Hinata drank in every last moment of holding the new, and welcoming her to the world. Seta nodded.

"You know-I guess I won't need that DNA test after all."

Hinata Urashima handed off Hinata Seta to her father, but took her revenge.

"Good. Keitaro will be relieved to hear this."

Seta laughed, but Sarah grimaced.

"Ye-ah. Haven't worn that squicky joke thin, now have we? Brain Bleach, Stat!"

But Sarah also realized something, and went to the hospital room's door.

"Oh-when those guys were chasing us, these two helped us get away."

As Kei and Motoko had correctly thought, the doppelganger attack in the garage had been a cover for a more direct attack. An attack that was in fact repelled and stopped. The girl with the purple hair patch walked in, and Haruka sighed.

"Please don't be my newborn daughter traveled back from the ninja zombie pirate robot future, come back to make things right. That and the purple patch are just way too Toriyama."

Hinata Seta, aged 20 years, shrugged.

"It's actually a pretty good future. But a rough spot is coming up, and I wanted to prevent my kidnapping. I got recovered pretty quickly, but you two never got over almost losing me. That one event, I was allowed to change because it only moved the deck chairs, instead of trying to stop the iceberg, so to speak."

Haruka opened her arms.

"C'mere, You!"

The girl Hinata was held by the mother that allowed for weirdness like this.

"Look, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Onee-Chan-I can't stay long. When Uncle Kei and the Aunties get back, I have to hand them something and go not long after. But I brought a gift to my own birth-a gift for Grandma-and Mama as well."

An older man only hours way from his chosen time of death stepped forward, now. Haruka instantly felt like a little girl again, and Hinata felt her heart beating like it had not since 1978.

"The ladies in my life have grown more beautiful and in number as well, I see."

"Awa?"

"Granpa Urashima?"

If Arlo had not been so thunderstruck by his own reunion, he might have noticed the Urashimas, dead and living, or that Shinobu had rushed out to join her siblings for a pitched battle.

But in this lapse he may be easily forgiven.

For on this self-same active day (though the Hinata-Sou had seen and would see wilder ones) he had at last met and confronted his biological father, and found him to be if anything more worthless than his mother's words and silences and even hard slaps had already told him.

On this day, he had learned of the pain that drove his mother early on, when she considered simply destroying her newborn child, and alternately raged at her and understood her completely.

On this day, he and his new girlfriend had fought furiously over the man she would likely always love, but had discovered he was gaining ground on that man as well, when he and that girlfriend addressed each other without honorific.

Now (and his incredible day was not yet complete), he had at last met the grandfather who had spurned his mother despite ideals that argued he should at least have forgiven her youthful mistakes.

"Do you have nothing to say to me, Alice-Chan?"

Arlo's Mother had done quite well for herself in the years since she was turned away. But memories die hard, if ever, and now she was once again a girl with a large stomach, a suitcase and a prayer that family friend Hinata Urashima would put her up for a while.

"Am I your little girl again, Old Man? Just like that? All is forgiven? Because I can assure you, all is not forgiven."

Rather than stalk off or demand respect, the old man at least acknowledged the justness of her anger.

"We here tend to believe that fealty flows ever upward-from child to parent, ad infinitum. As a youth, I railed against this, demanding that we remember the grim journey such beliefs took us on. It took Gojira's hideous rampages in the 50's to have other countries forgive us, and the rebuilding demanded by Gamera-Dono's sacrifice three years ago to revive our dead economy. But when it came to my own child, I was the monster-and a hypocrite. All can be forgiven, my wonderful Alice - if you will forgive me."

Alice bitterly pointed to her son.

"Me? It is him you must apologize to. Him, who you left without a family, or a name. Arlo as a boy did not have time to play. And because of the neediness your banishment brought out in me, an obedient child was slapped constantly, because I wanted to bring him pain! Because I did not merely see his father's face in his, but my father's as well."

Arlo stood up, but not in anger, at least to hear his voice.

"The terms for my forgiveness are stark, but simple, Grandfather. If you will do this thing I ask, I will aid you and lend my support to your efforts to reconcile with my mother."

The older man nodded, and stood up himself.

"That which is you describe is worth any price, so name yours-grandson."

Arlo looked at his mother, to make certain he had not exceeded what she found allowable. Finding no objection in her face, he kept on.

"You and my mother have both said that a man once an iconoclast very suddenly became a traditionalist, when his daughter became pregnant out of wedlock."

The older man nodded.

"You wish to know why I spurned my stated beliefs by also spurning your mother?"

Arlo shook his head.

"Only in part. Such things are known to happen, when ideals meet reality. She was still your little girl, and the situation could have had that effect on you. Stress had made my mother a figure to be wary of, after all, yet I could not love her more. No. My question is an even simpler one, yet again, also harsh. Even with due respect, I must demand as complete an answer as you can give."

Arlo's grandfather closed his eyes and braced himself, for he knew well what was coming.

"Ask."

"Hai. Grandfather, if you turned away and banished my mother for getting pregnant, why did you and your family not also spurn the man who cheated on his wife-to-be and got my mother pregnant? My mother was a girl, and she was misled by her Sempai. Yet he remained married to your niece and a member of your family, at some point still living in your home, and to see him today, I have to believe he never stopped pursuing young girls. You I may forgive, but never him, partly because he would never ask it or seek it. Why, grandfather, was the dragon taken back into the castle, and the princess driven out?"

Hiro, a man who once thought he was aptly named, looked at his daughter.

"Do you demand this as well?"

Alice shook her head.

"Should I have to demand it?"

Hiro sat back down.

"No. It is an answer I should have given long ago."

He breathed in, and his estranged family members briefly thought he was going to faint.

"That answer is a simple one."

He nodded, while fighting back tears.

"Because I am a coward."

Hiro lost the fight with the tears, but as he controlled them once again, he found his daughter was now sitting next to him, and she took his hand, squeezing it for support.

"I have waited a long time for this, Papa. Now, please-tell me all the rest of it."

As he began to do just that, Arlo first noticed that Shinobu was gone from his side. Since he could not leave his mother at a moment like this, a bit of resentment began to build.

_*She better have a damned good reason for this.*_

In the parking garage, Kei took the lead in trying to take down their doppelgangers by other means. He walked up to within fifteen feet of alt-Keitaro.

"A ronin who failed to get into Todai!"

Alt-Keitaro began to shake, and now Motoko moved against her opponent.

"A falsely strong warrior who is afraid of even a pet turtle!"

Alt-Motoko's grip on her weapons now seemed unsteady, and this was Mitsu's cue.

"Just keep on faking your way through life, girl-because no one will ever take you seriously."

A stunned look replaced Alt-Kitsune's cocky smile. Shinobu saw her opening.

"Sempai has chosen another. Because you were not mature enough."

Alt-Shinobu's face began to contort in pain, so much so that Kei had to be shushed into silence when he tried to say how this wasn't true. Mutsumi gave her all.

"They play with each other now. They don't play with you anymore."

Alt-Mutsumi fainted, but a shrug from the one they knew confirmed that this really didn't tell them anything. Su stood and stared at her counterpart, produced a large mallet, and sent her flying.

"I have one-but it's just too horrible to ever be spoken out loud."

Finally, Naru had to take the one she knew best, and her nerves in doing so in fact led the way.

"Whenever things don't go just your way-you run away."

Alt-Naru winced, frowned-and then punched Naru back against the wall. As Naru realized this was the second Naru-dent she was leaving in this hospital that day, the other Alts attacked their targets, once again leaving the Sou-siblings in a pile of flesh and hurt. Motoko felt something.

"Urashima, is that your hand up my..."

Mitsu responded.

"Nah-that's me, Toko."

Motoko frowned.

"You could have at least let me think it was him. I haven't gotten any action lately!"

Mutsumi looked at her.

"You are dating my brother, right?"

Before Motoko could respond, she saw outside the parking garage at the Emergency Room entrance, where a woman was in a wheelchair, being pushed by her nervous-looking husband. She stood up to confirm who she knew it to be.

"What's Tsuruko doing here? Is my sister giving birth today as well?"

At these words, Alt-Motoko's body broke out in spasms, and her suit sparked, until she was clearly unconscious and her armor inoperable. Mitsu again grasped the point.

"If we were all past those flaws we put up in their faces, then so were they. Rational fears aren't enough, girls and boy - we need to go for the psychological jugular!"

Mutsumi smiled, nodded in agreement - then asked a question.

"Mitsu, how do we do that?"

For which the reformed trickster had no answer. But their brother did. Kei rose and pointed in the air.

"We are the Siblings Of The Sou! We'll-make it up as we go along!"

Having no better answer, his sisters rose in unison to cheer this very vague battle plan. Despite her questioning, Mutsumi moved quickly against her revived counterpart.

"Does Your Mother Know That You're Out?"

This time, the fainting was like unto the end of a Rocky movie as she swooned and sparked furiously. Mutsumi smiled as Alt-Mutsumi was down for the count.

"I always tell her where I'm going."

Shinobu hated what she had to do to her counterpart.

"My new boyfriend-who is NOT SEMPAI-is a better cook than me, and showed me how to cook blowfish-illegally!"

Alt-Shinobu was thrown back with physical force by her reaction to the tripled blow, and her armor blew off entirely. Motoko glared at Shinobu.

"How come your counterpart got stripped naked?"

Shinobu covered Alt-Shinobu with her jacket.

"I may not be Sempai's girl, but I am his best student."

Naru sidestepped Alt-Naru's stretchy punches, and gave forth with her true attack.

"I give this whole attack a grade of-"

Naru placed her fingers on her temples in a steeple, as if to aim the words with more force,

"-C!"

The woman who was her boy's girl followed this by building up speed, and then rabbit-punching her staggered foe until her armor was almost gone.

"Hmmph. It won't come off her crotch. Well, she can keep that much."

Shinobu shrugged.

"A grade of _**C**_, Sempai?"

Naru closed her eyes and pointed upward.

"Outright failure happens from time to time. But there is no excuse for a middling result."

Mitsu brought her best to Round 2.

"Second biggest? Girl, your boobs are barely seventh in rank - and when Naru gets knocked up by Kei and when Shinobu and Su blossom, you may not even make the top ten."

Enraged, Alt-Kitsune moved despite her armor sparking, so Mitsu gave a finishing move that would make Great-Granpa Raiden proud.

"AND NOBODY LIKES THE LEFT ONE!"

In the midst of a leap, Alt-Kitsune shuddered and fell, her armor melted off her and she managed to actually speak a few words, though it was in an accent more rural than Mitsu even thought existed.

"_If it's all the same to you_, I'll take a drink now."

Mitsu kicked her straight in the head.

"The bar is closed, kid."

Kei approached Alt-Keitaro. Naru saw the glassy look on his face, and knew he had entered another trance.

"This is not good. Why would you go all unemotional at a time like this?"

He smiled at her, but it was the single most unnerving smile she had ever seen.

"Not unemotional. Just a certain type of emotion and personality."

As Naru wondered why she simply hated that smile, Kei found his opponent once again pushing on his chest to knock him down. This was all the cue Kei needed. He looked Alt-Keitaro directly in the eyes.

"Why are you grabbing my boobs?"

Sweat began to pour from the duplicate's head, and tears from his eyes. But Kei kept on.

"MORON! You're still grabbing me there."

Naru made the connection and felt her stomach turn.

"Oh, Kei-anything but that."

Alt-Keitaro moved his hands back, but his sweaty fingers caught on Kei's shirt, opening and then tearing it.

"Idiot! You did that on purpose, didn't you, PERVERT!?"

As Alt-Keitaro became a shaking bowl of Jell-O, Shinobu felt a stirring.

"Wowie-Yaoi."

Reasoning that Alt-Keitaro was their leader, Kei moved through his borrowed repertoire to its inevitable conclusion.

"Don't just stand there staring - get out of here."

Motoko grinned.

"Oh, this so takes me back."

Alt-Keitaro muttered.

"I'm-I'm sorry...sorry...sorr..."

Kei took a piece of shattered concrete and slammed Alt-Keitaro in the face.

"STOP APOLOGIZING!"

What followed next snapped Kei out of his trance.

"Umm, did he just turn to liquid and melt out of his armor?"

Shinobu clapped as Alt-Keitaro solidified.

"Bravo, Sempai! But where were the rest of us?"

Kei bowed.

"I was keeping the rest of you in reserve. But I promise, Shinobu-next I would have called him a jerk while crying."

What should have insulted her instead put hearts in Shinobu's vision. But now Su faced a dilemma.

"I can't do it. I just can't."

Alt-Kaolla Su was at her laptop, and the other doppels began to stir. Mitsu pointed.

"Su, you have to. She'll revive them and start the whole thing over again. We can't take much more of this."

"No! It's too horrible."

Shinobu took her friend's hand.

"My friend can do anything she puts her mind to."

Kei picked Su up and gave her a hug.

"They don't belong here, Su. This fight is hurting our counterparts worse than us. Help them-and all of us. Please? For me?"

Su kissed him on the cheek.

"You had me at the hug, Onii-Chan."

She kicked the other Su's laptop away.

"You-have forced me to use a song so vile and obscene, it is banned forever in Molmol and all surrounding islands. No foreign diplomat may sing it while on our soil-"

Alt-Su began to shake. Su nodded.

"Yes-it is that one. But it's for your own good!"

Su cleared her throat, and began to warble the old ditty.

_"Yes, we have no bananas  
We have-a no bananas today  
We've string beans, and onions  
Cabashes, and scallions,  
And all sorts of fruit and say  
We have an old fashioned tomato  
A Long Island potato But yes, we have no bananas  
We have no bananas today."_

With the horrid words spoken, Alt-Su tore her laptop apart in grief and despair, and tore off her own armor. Su placed Kei's jacket over her fallen foe, and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'm so sorry. But you made me do it."

Naru pointed at her fallen counterpart.

"Get that armor off her crotch, just to be sure."

Kei shrugged.

"Why would I be able to, when you couldn't?"

Naru rolled her eyes.

"You have to ask? Women's clothing starts to loosen in your mere presence. It's like you generate a field or something. Now get it off."

He did that, then covered Alt-Naru back up. In this case, it was nothing he hadn't seen before, except for one thing.

"I think she must shave-but it was-weird."

Motoko and Mutsumi pulled him over.

"Now strip our duplicates."

"It's only fair, Kei-Kun!"

Naru sighed but allowed for it, as the garage again began to storm.

"Mitsu?"

"Not me, girl. Look!"

The portal opened, with one large armored figure, obviously female, and a much smaller one moving at them. The larger one was holding a very large repeater gun, and the smaller one, an ornate slab of ancient-looking stone. Kei knew who they were.

"Sarah-and Auntie?"

Steam rose from the larger figure, who removed her helmet to confirm that this was Alt-Haruka Urashima. She fired up her gun.

"DON'T-EVER-CALL-MEEEEEE-"

She laid down suppressive fire in all directions as Alt-Sarah gathered their fallen comrades, ancient tablets and vases being thrown like ninja stars as the others tried to stop her. At the last one being dragged back through, Alt-Haruka screamed once more, at the absolute top of her lungs.

"-AAAAAUNNNNNTIEEEEEEEEEE!"

But, without Alt-Su to feed the gun's chips commands to cool it, it finally melted down. As Naru went to strike, Kei pulled everyone back.

"Run! Their ride is here!"

Naru shrugged.

"Ride? What ride-Oh My God!"

Realization had all of them making for the exit back into the hospital. Sure enough, a flying saucer crashed through the portal as Alt-Seta came to collect his family members, taking out the garage's remaining pillars as he departed.

Because some things cannot be corrected, even by nanoprobes.

Running along with her friends, Mutsumi focused on the essences of their departed attackers.

"I have you now!"

Back inside the hospital, an administrator accepted a concocted story without too much dispute.

"That garage was always in need of maintenance. Some heads will roll when the board hears this."

Su looked at Motoko, who would later explain that most people were not even remotely prepared to deal with what really happened in that garage. Still, the lie sat well with none of them.

"Did they get to Auntie and the baby?"

When they got to the hospital room, Haruka was smiling and holding the baby. The strange girl who had aided them stood together with the older man, who, Kei realized, bore a striking resemblance to his father. Also, Grandma seemed aglow in his presence.

_*A long-lost uncle or something?*_

"Hey, Uncle Kei. Meet your niece, Hinata Seta - both of them."

Haruka thumb-pointed to the girl that had helped them, and Kei saw the truth in her face.

"Great shades of Toriyama!"

Haruka frowned.

"It's been done."

But for all the questions Kei might have had, it was a far freer spirit that spoke up.

"You traveled through time? You built your own time machine?"

Hinata Seta knelt down and regarded the Princess Of Molmol.

"Wow-you really were _*this*_ cute once. I'd seen the pictures, but there is nothing like the real thing."

Kaolla Su looked upset.

"I'm not cute anymore?"

"NO! I mean, I guess some still see you that way. But to me, you're a goddess. You're my teacher, and my best pal. For years, I tried to be a ganguro, so I could look just like you. You built my time machine."

Su seemed in awe of this description of Kaolla-yet-to-be, while Hinata Seta looked around at her family.

"You all helped raise me-or you will. Needless to say, I can't offer up too much more, but I can tell you that I always wanted..."

She looked at Motoko.

"Your grace."

Shinobu.

"Your resiliency."

Mutsumi.

"Your endurance."

Mitsune.

"Your moral core."

Sarah.

"Your Boobs. You, Onee-Chan, should not be able to walk upright."

As Sarah gained a grin that Haruka slapped the back of her head to stop, Hinata Seta looked at Naru.

"Your innate sense of calm and inner peace."

As Naru chewed on that seeming non sequitur, the visitor looked at Kei.

"You."

The future girl hopped up into his arms, all but mounting him, clothes notwithstanding.

"I'm a girl who LOVES her Uncle Kei!"

Naru and Motoko peeled her off.

"And the tradition continues."

Motoko nodded.

"Apparently, she also has had training from Kanako."

Hinata Seta grinned.

"Sorry-it's those glasses."

Sarah once more felt her squick meter nearing overload, while Seta looked at his grown daughter.

"Is there a Daddy fetish in there, too?"

Hinata Seta frowned.

"Pervert! Don't be sick. Besides-"

She kissed him on the cheek.

"My Daddy gave me a world fetish. I study archaeology as it happens-invisible and intangible, of course. One day, you'll take me to see the Yucatan Peninsula."

Seta shrugged.

"That's not very exciting."

His future child added on.

"Did I forget to mention we visited it the day of the great impact-at the end of the Cretaceous?"

Kei lit up.

"Meteor or comet?"

But as Hinata-Mirai was about to respond, Haruka cut her temporal baby off.

"Hey, kiddo? Maybe you should introduce our other visitor?"

But it was Grandma who made this introduction.

"How appropriate, on this day we reconcile, Keitaro, that you finally have a chance to meet the man whose legacy you carry on."

Kei's denseness was in play, though to be fair, Grandma's words were vague enough. But all riddles ended when Kei's parents arrived to see their new grand-niece, and Kei's father gasped to see the dead walk.

"Papa? How can this be?"

As Kenjiro approached his father, Kei began to tear up.

"Granpa Awa? I...I...Naru, hit me so I don't start blubbering like a..."

But Naru was already in tears.

"So beautiful...waghhhhh!"

Kei rolled his eyes.

"...crybaby."

The punch then came, but in a second, both were approaching the gift of their newborn niece.

"Grandfather? I am Keitaro Urashima-the son of your son, Kenjiro."

Kenjiro rolled his eyes.

"I'm right here, son-and my father knows who I am."

Awa was holding the great-grandchild he by rights should never have known, but in fact had first met as a grown woman. His eyes were misting, though he kept from outright crying.

"A fine young man. And are these beauties your sisters?"

"They are, grandfather, Together, we all run the inn that bears your wife's name."

Grandma cut in once again.

"A faithful man, who rescued an ungrateful old woman from her stupid desire to die."

Before Kei could smile at this or refute it, Motoko jumped in.

"More, Urashima-Dono-we are his harem. While our brother has chosen our sister, we-SISTER?!"

Motoko gulped, and ran over to Kei in a panic.

"Kei-Kun? My sister is giving birth as we speak. I-I don't know how to be an Auntie!"

Future Hinata tried to calm her.

"He'll be a great kid, who worships his Tokoba-in about three minutes. Also, my Onee-Chan's chest. Pervert."

But Motoko was still doing an early Keitaro in her demeanor.

"But-but-what if I drop him? What if I-WAAAAAAGGGHHHH!"

She fell to her knees while holding Kei-and pulling down his trousers in the process.

"Urashima-I'm so sorry! Here-take my bokken."

Instead of even giving her the lightest tap, Kei just pulled her to her feet,

"C'mon, Motoko. You know I don't want that. Go see Tsuroko, and your nephew. From what Hina Junior here is saying, he might be my nephew one day, too."

Hina Junior-the adult version-seemed to bristle at this suggestion, but only for a second, while the baby Hina Junior cooed in Shinobu's arms. Mitsu leaned in on her.

"Looks like you're a natural, kid. You and Arlo gonna make one of those, someday?"

Shinobu was about to gently rejoinder when the name of her boyfriend re-lit the pilot light on her memory.

"Oh-My! Arlo needs me. I hope-I hope he's not mad at me. Sempai-take Hinata-ummm-the present-day baby version-from me."

"I-kind of got which one you meant, Shin-Chan."

Kei took a second to hold the baby just right, and was teased for it by his fiancée.

"Geez, Kei, drop her why doncha?"

Hinata-Mirai took her younger self and held her close.

"No worries there, Naroba."

Everyone gasped as she threw the baby against the wall, only to hear the newborn laugh and giggle. Haruka took the baby back, and found she had not even a scratch.

"Kei-yell at your niece-the future one."

Kei (who once again had already figured which one was being talked about) did just that.

"Do you have any idea how STUPID that was, young lady? You could have killed yourself, and torn apart time itself!"

Hinata Junior smiled and kissed him on the lips.

"You are soooo HOT when you shame me."

Kei drooped.

"Sorry, Auntie. Not getting through."

Hina Jr. shrugged.

"Nor are you likely to. See, in the old timeline, my kidnappers dropped me a few times-not a scratch. Fact is, you all were worried that I wasn't going to age, because I was so immortal. That's how I knew she-I-couldn't be hurt that way."

Since the baby was alright, attention turned back to the elder of the two time-travelers, who looked his wife over. Hinata Senior huffed a bit.

"I can't look that bad."

Awa held her close, belying any such notion.

"You know it's not that. To me, you can only become more beautiful. But-why have you gotten shorter? You're almost as short as you were when you were just a girl."

Hina Senior sighed, took hold of her great-granddaughter, kissed her, then handed her back to Seta. While Sarah made faces at her little sister, Hina Senior prepared to unburden herself of her greatest secret.

"I need to use the shower stall in the bathroom. When I come out, my husband will know what I kept from him all our lives, as shall my son, and my granddaughters-all of them-and my grandson will at last understand why I spurned him when he did so much for me."

As Hina made herself ready, two of her unofficial granddaughters found themselves in odd circumstances of their own. Shinobu saw Alice embracing the man she now knew to be Alice's father, and Arlo's grandfather. Blocking her from reaching them was Arlo himself, his arms folded.

"I guess we know where you'll go when I need you, Shinobu Maehara. How could you duck out on me, at a time such as this?"

Shinobu was a bit upset to be so tasked, but tried to talk things down.

"What if I say that I have a very good explanation?"

Arlo still seemed unmoved.

"I would say it had better be a damned good explanation!"

Ten minutes later, when Shinobu had given the briefest synopsis imaginable of invading alternate worlds and visiting timelines, Arlo needed to sit down.

"Damn. That was a very good explanation. Did all that really happen?"

Shinobu nearly went all frying-pan on him, but merely leaned up and got in his face.

"Are you calling me a liar, Arlo Guthrie?"

Arlo now took on a fluster that brought back early memories of Shinobu's sempai.

"NO! Noooo-it's just, all that is so fantastic, it's hard to take in. I think I'd almost prefer that you were holding the baby, and simply lost track of time."

Shinobu chuckled.

"I think we all would. But now I want to hear about why your mother forgave her father."

Arlo looked over at the two.

"I don't know that she has, entirely. But I think that process is starting. Grandfather asked her to take back his family's name. My name may not be Guthrie for much longer."

As Arlo began to explain what his grandfather told them, another new birth seemed horribly derailed. Motoko gasped and felt the blood leave her heart, as the world grew cold.

"You miscarried?"

Motoko felt her heart break, and wondered how to console a sister likely beyond consolation. Then it struck her. Hadn't the future Hinata Jr. said she had a nephew?

"Tsuruko, I am so sorry for this."

It was a trite thing to say, but Motoko rightly suspected that exactly what she said would have little impact on Tsuruko's reaction.

"You should be sorry. It was your lack of support that killed my child! You never wanted this baby to be."

Motoko silently thanked her 'brother' Keitaro for his consistent intrusiveness. It had raised her method of approaching paranoid fears to a fine art form.

"Is that so? I apologize then, for causing the death of my precious niece."

Having had to calm and deal with her fears - and the eventual realization that she somewhat liked both the peeping and the peeper, however accidental, her psychic armor had been built up.

"You apologize? My little girl is dead, because you have been a poor sister and you would have made a worse aunt!"

Also helpful were her past efforts to keep from exploding every time she saw Kei. This patience served her well right then and there.

"Your sonogram said you were going to have twins. Are you saying that both of those were lost?"

Motoko caught an eye flutter on Tsuruko's otherwise perfect mask of anger. It was all she needed for 100% confirmation as Tsuruko responded.

"The other one I miscarried weeks ago-if you could be bothered to contact your sister, you would have known this."

Motoko felt her sword and her bokken against her legs.

"Sister, tell me. Do you still also hold me responsible for the death of your husband?"

With that, Motoko had overplayed her hand, and the false Tsuruko rose up from her bed and attacked. Motoko had gained much from sparring with Kei, who had been taught by Seta.

"Witch! How did you know?"

Motoko struck with impact that would have shaken loose a disguise, so this phony was at least a false Tsuruko, and not a false Kanako.

"My sister would never have been so straightforward in her accusations. Also, even if she really felt that way, she would have taken pains to make it a lesson for me. Now where is my sister, her husband and her child?"

The duplicate sneered, and the sneer was the whole of her face.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

With that, Motoko punched the imposter into a wall, where she was knocked cold.

"You actually said 'Wouldn't You Like To Know' to me? Characters in my romance stories speak more creatively than that."

A soft crying sound came from the small closet in Tsuruko's hospital room. Motoko opened it to find her sister sobbing.

"It's all right, Onee-Sama. Your ordeal is done with."

Motoko said not one word as her sister wept, as uncomfortable as it made her to see her idol so shattered.

"Imtouko?"

"I am here, Tsuronee. But where is your child? You have given birth, that I can see."

Motoko wanted to ask the warrior who had trained and raised her to stop weeping and collect herself. But this was not in her. It was also to prove pointless.

"They have taken my child-those strange intruders took my child away because of YOU!"

Tsuruko went for her sister's throat.

"Why were you attending to mirrors of yourself for the sake of a baby girl not your own blood? Did it never occur to you that the future girl lied to keep herself safe, and place my baby as the thieves' new target?"

Motoko's shame overrode her common sense, until she remembered a promise made to her beloved Urashima.

_*I don't think I really have to forgive you for anything, Toko. Just knowing you made me stronger. But if you feel you have to do penance, then promise me this : Never let your emotions keep you from hewing to the rational, A couple of times at least, I tried to explain, and you pushed that aside in either anger or sadness. Never again, OK?* _

He had punctuated it with that sweet goofy smile, the sand in her oyster's shell that became a pearl. Snapping out of the second duplicate's deceitful words, Motoko pushed the false Tsuruko's hands off her throat.

"How did you even know who we fought?"

Motoko then blocked the vicious double from attempting to strangle her anew as she further questioned the attacker.

"If you were stuffed into a closet, then how did you know Oba Haruka had even given birth, let alone to a girl, who had a visiting future self?"

The second false Tsuruko kicked the first, who did not revive, then turned and smiled softly at Motoko.

"You have no idea what it is you're up against-HEYYYY!"

Motoko tore the hospital gown off the dopple, and slammed both sides of her head as she stupidly protected her modesty.

"More clichés? I HATE CLICHES! As I write my stories, I spend hours avoiding any trite dialogue such as that-You Have No Idea What You're Up Against?-is one of the ten most hateful pieces of lazy dialogue a writer can trap themselves in."

In fact, while Motoko's plots and premises and nearly everything else you could name about her stories were in fact supremely trite, her dialogue was spot-on in terms of capturing voices.

"Now you must answer for your crimes, little sister..."

Motoko sighed, praying that this third false Tsuruko would not say what she thought was coming. Yet this is exactly what the armored, masked samurai did as she finished.

"...IN FINAL BATTLE!"

Enraged, Motoko took her bokken and struck the ornate helmet-mask on the top, causing a reverb that shook the third false Tsuruko apart at the seams. The impostor crouched to cover her modesty.

"I am naked?!"

Motoko now also sent her flying with her own variant of the Naru-Punch.

"You're in Urashima-Land, Witch! Nudity is required."

Motoko prepared to look for the real Tsuruko once more, and silently gave thanks that she cut off this impostor before yet more catchphrases were uttered. Then she looked around.

"Just...great."

Six Tsurukos now faced her down, each armed with unique Katanas, fighting styles, and the one weapon Motoko now hated with a bloody vengeance.

"Prepare to die, Imouto Bitch!"

"I want to etch that look on your face forever!"

"Haven't you accepted at last that you just can't win?"

"Your fate is sealed."

"I am your rendezvous with death!"

"There is nowhere left to run, Little Sister!"

Motoko briefly flashed back to her first night at the Sou, and then to Kei's first night. Her rage was at its maximum, believing that Tsuruko's husband Shuhei and later Kei would soon be by to violate her. She slept sword in hand, shaking and sobbing. But that was false rage, and both of those men were now her true brothers, whom she now also regretted tasking, even though it was this that proved their worth. She would not regret tasking these false images of the woman that raised her. Rather than mount a pointless defense against so many ultra-skilled attackers, Motoko went on the offensive, just as her true sensei had shown her.

"NO..."

Two Katanas left their hilts, a feat supposed to be as impossible as shattering them. Motoko now turned her motions inward, to block the two opponents that rushed in to block her escape. Motoko had no more intention of escaping than of surrendering her love for the man she accepted would be only a brother. Well, sort-of accepted.

"MORE..."

One impostor got her knees shattered. Another got kneed in the crotch, which, while it would never hurt a woman in quite the same way as a man, was still a pain to be remembered for a very long time.

"...CATCHPHRASES!"

There was actual fear on the faces of the final two as the ascended warrior struck at them both simultaneously while constantly switching which weapon she used from hand to hand, frustrating any effort to generate a defense. Both caught on the chin, they went flying as Motoko cried out in ecstatic triumph.

"URASHIMA!"

Okay, okay. So she never accepted him just being a brother and never would.

After a minute, she saw a very pregnant woman entering in a wheelchair, pushed by her loving husband.

"Motoko? Sister, you got my message?"

Motoko did the unthinkable and drew both her weapons, pointing at the couple with all intent.

"Bring it!"

Without rising from the chair, Tsuruko knocked both weapons from her sister's hands.

"Stop being an idiot, Motoko. I'm about to pop, and I threw up three times on the way here."

Shuhei nodded nervously.

"That, and she has been...moody."

Tsuruko slapped him, then kissed the same cheek.

"Beloved perpetrator of this horrid blessed wrong upon my once-pure body, please go and register us at the desk. NOW!"

Shuhei almost whimpered as he went. He had his sister-in-law's sympathies. Tsuruko looked about at the carnage.

"What's with all the dead Tsurukos?"

Motoko relayed an abridged version of her impossible day. Tsuruko openly gasped at one part of it.

"So Haruka-San gave birth as well, today? How propitious."

Shuhei had come back and caught most of Motoko's story. He winced.

"Really? She describes a tale of time travel and alternate universes invading ours, and you focus on another woman giving birth?"

Tsuruko grabbed her husband's ear.

"Birth is always the greatest miracle of all. If I permit you to survive inflicting said miracle on me, beloved, you will come to realize this."

She then kissed her man deeply.

"For I plan to soon get started on the next one. Sister, help me to stand up."

Motoko did just that, and while she realized it could all be another trap, it felt too tender, to right, to be so. Plus, she was exhausted and could likely be pushed over at that point.

"Imouto, how did you beat all of those...me?"

Motoko wanted to brag on her practice, both with and without Kei, but thought better of it.

"Easily explained, Onee-Sama. While they may have all been born Tsuruko Aoyama, not one of them was my sister."

But as Tsuruko smiled at this, her nine doppelgangers reappeared, joined by the false Shuhei, the Motoko realized she had glimpsed earlier in the parking garage battle. They were now wearing the same armor she had seen on the false Sou group whose attack had started this madness. Shuhei was apparently their control.

"Attack!"

The real (or this reality's native version of) Tsuruko moved, only to be grabbed by her loved ones.

"Hit me all you want, wife, but you are not fighting now!"

"My brother speaks for me, Onee-Chan!"

Tsuruko smiled.

"Oh, I could fight, even now, as they encircle us. But know your enemy, my family. Motoko-you must never speak of what I am about to do here."

Tsuruko looked past her duplicates. Her face grew fearful.

"EEEEK! A giant spotted Hill Hamster!"

All the other Tsurukos shrieked the wails of the damned, then vanished. The false Shuhei surveyed his changed position as he sweated.

"Ummm...We'll Be Back!"

As he vanished, he was knocked unconscious by Tsuruko's hurled wheelchair. The true Shuhei had taken the false one out as he grimaced.

"Asshole. I hate dumb catchphrases."

Motoko would later tell him of her similar feelings. But for then, she questioned her sister as she helped her to the delivery room.

"Hamsters? Really?"

Tsuruko jerked a thumb back at her first and best playmate.

"Ask the little boy who dropped one inside my kimono one New Year's Day when we were only five years old."

Shuhei smiled.

"I still have the bruises to prove it."

Motoko, far from gloating over her sister's revealed phobia, joyed in knowing better someone she only thought she knew.

"I will await word of your delivery, Onee-Sama."

Tsuruko now looked concerned.

"No! Imouto, I need you in there with me. Motoko, I'm scared. I've never had a baby before."

Motoko nearly soiled herself.

"Onee-Sama, I know nothing of how to birth children!"

"Frankly, my Imouto-I don't give a damn. Besides, I'll be doing all the work."

Motoko saw the doctors take Tsuruko in, and Motoko looked at Shuhei.

"I take it the odds are against us, and the situation is grim."

Shuhei nodded.

"What we face cannot be bribed, threatened or negotiated with. She will not stop until we are in that room with her. In there, she will hurt us."

Motoko realized that her Kei had faced Auntie's pregnant wrath, and that she could do no less and still be worthy of him. She took her brother-in-law's hand. The hand of the man she once feared and hated more than a nightmare of Keitaro with industrial vacuum-cleaners for hands.

"Sounds like fun."

For the Little Blossom had begun to flower.

In Haruka's hospital room, no one could so much as breathe.

"Mom?"

"Grandma?"

Awa was at that moment showing that he really was Kei's grandfather as he fainted right into Mutsumi's chest, and when she helped him up, he fainted again into Mitsu's. She helped him to a chair.

"Guess he really is Granpa."

Mutsumi found some smelling salts for the time-visitor.

"Yes. But he doesn't move his face around, like Kei does."

Mitsu sniffed.

"He never moved his face around for me."

Yet perverted intent or no, the Urashima men - and everyone else in the room - had ample reason to gasp and breathe hard. For the elder Hinata Urashima had emerged from washing up, and now wore no makeup. It now seemed like she had been wearing a lot of makeup.

"I suppose in this one instance, I should stop and explain myself."

The old woman was gone, as though she had never existed, which some realized faster than others, she never had.

Nor was a young woman there. No, in an earlier time, and among some few modern but old-fashioned folk, the elder Hinata Urashima was what some might affectionately or more commonly derisively describe as a mere snip of a girl. Su and Sarah were the first to gingerly approach her. Su stared, smiled, and then picked the smaller girl up in a gushing embrace.

"Oh, Grandma! You're so cute!"

Sarah gestured, and Su handed a slightly fuming Hinata over.

"Let me hold her! Oh-I have a mini-Grandma! I could get my own spin-off with this. We'll call it _Love Hina Grand Tour_."

Haruka slapped the back of her adopted daughter's head.

"Sarah-and I never once thought I'd have to say this-don't pick your Grandma up like that."

"Ow! Getting a little slap-happy there, Lady? I'm not immortal, ya know."

Seta was speechless, as was Naru. Kei moved to be beside Grandma, but out of respect, let Haruka speak to her first.

"You-you were taller when I was little. I know you were."

Kenjiro Urashima stared at his mother.

"There are definitely some logistics involved in my birth that don't work out here. At all."

His elders having had their say, Kei asked a question that once would have gotten him slugs for impropriety and stupidity, but was at that moment the sharpest and most apropos question anyone could hope to ask. He knelt to her head level as he looked her in the eye.

"Grandma-how old are you?"

Wishing to make clear that a brief but painful time of hard feelings was done with, the girl Hinata (though still the elder) hugged her grandson.

"I turn One-Hundred-Fifty-Five this year, child."

Her voice, as much an affectation as her looks, also suited her revealed age. Awa shook his head.

"I knew this. You told me. But I saw you become a woman!"

Husband or no, Awa got a lot of stares from that statement.

"Dirty Minds! I meant I saw her age from looking like this to-how I always knew her. At least I think I did-did I-Did I-despoil a young girl-I mean a REAAAALY young girl?"

Hinata closed her eyes and tensed.

"This should answer your question-aaahh!"

Grandma Hina surged with energy and then shifted form. Now a woman of just around twenty was in view.

"I can do that, now. My Awa enabled me to do that. But I learned it takes an effort to maintain."

Mitsu pulled up a chair.

"This I gotta hear."

Grandma Hina also pulled up a chair.

"It is worth hearing. I will try and make it less complicated than my sister's explanation of your birth, Mitsune."

Mitsu almost didn't catch that Grandma had called her Kitsune-mother as sister, but when she did, decided wisely to let the story reveal all that.

"My father was fiercely opposed to the restoration, to the end of the Shogunate. He predicted that, left to their own devices, the unguided Emperors would allow foreign devils into our lands. Indeed. In fact, it was the very newest and crudest of those gaijin who broke the sakoku forever. But I knew nothing of devils. I only knew of one of the few sailors to make landfall during Perry's negotiations and threats. His name was Sam McDougal, and he was so incredibly different from everything I'd ever known, he could not help but delight me. In no time at all, I called him Onii-Chan, and he called me Hinamouto-or in his language, simply Little Sister."

Sarah's jaw dropped. Though she in fact knew very few of her distant cousins, this legend she knew all too well.

"Grandma? YOU were Little Sister? My Mom left me cards for each birthday she wouldn't be there for - Dad here used to tell me she dropped them off before returning to Heaven - and she always told me to brave like you."

Haruka did not correct her child's interruption, for this tale tied up so much of what she had known, what she had suspected, and what she could never have so much as guessed at.

"Mom-how did you come to be this way?"

As Haruka's newborn slept quietly in her arms, and as the same girl's future counterpart listened (while eyeing her Uncle Kei a little too often), everyone kept silent, including Hinata's husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandson. For to a one in that room, this was a story they had never heard before.

"It is not surprising that my father found my friendship with MacDougal-San wholly intolerable. When called before him, he did not even bother with a warning. His edict was to never see my new friend ever again. I was not the willful child he decried with every other breath, so I agreed to obey his wishes,, but begged that I be allowed to tell MacDougal-San that this was the reality we faced. I argued that, to offer him no explanation would place our House and perhaps Japan itself in a bad light. My father then said cold, chilling words which said to me that Sam MacDougal would never see anyone again, nor either of his little sisters, in America or in Japan. Admiral Perry had since sailed, the death of one sailor either not mattering to some, or he was listed as a deserter. My father then banished me for disgracing him in such a manner, and what is more, he cursed me with as perfect a form of immortality as some have seen. Since I was not disowned outright, I attempted to stay with other distant relatives, but it was always only for a time. A girl of that age who does not-age-is eventually noticed, and told to go. I learned to hunt and cook for myself, since I still got hungry and could grow weak. One day, one of my traps caught something that would change my life forever."

Mitsu smiled despite the grim story.

"You caught a fox."

Hina nodded.

"A spirit-fox. As I prepared to make a meal from its meat and winter fur from its coat, it begged me to spare it - in exchange for giving me its whole family. I was naturally suspicious, but figured I was now sharp enough and ruthless enough to take them all on, my winter worries done for years to come. I had of course made the fox swear binding promises to not eat me or allow its family or other predators to eat me. I knew by then how to word things so that no trickster, mortal or no, could cheat me without consequence. Yet this fox managed to do what no tavern-owner or Yokai had done before. For Kitsunes are always tricksters at heart. The fox had lead me to her family and stunned me by asking them to adopt me. Since she would be eaten and skinned otherwise, they had no choice. I felt enraged at first, deprived of the meal and warmth I wanted and needed. But in fact I ate well, and the warmth I had was once more the warmth of a family. I stayed with them often, and kept other Humans from them, as the modern age encroached on all their earthly homes. Needless to say, the fox I had caught became my pain-in-the-ass little sister. After some initial feuding, we became protective of each other. We each stand as the other's surrogate in the other's world, for legal and mystic reasons. She is a second mother to my children, and I to hers."

It was a small thing to say all were stunned by this. Yet again, Mitsu found a way to speak, and seemed to be on the verge of tears.

"That means, in a way, you really are my Grandma, and Kei is really my Bro. Wow-Just wow."

Mitsu looked at Naru.

"Now, you have to marry him, so we can be sisters for real."

Naru had wanted to say that they had always been this, but saw now almost painfully how much of an outsider her oldest friend had always seen herself as.

"Deal. But let's let Grandma finish."

A hand-squeeze was shared, and Hina kept on.

"But while a mortal may travel with spirits, staying with them is another story. Any time my new family would enter a realm that would simply kill a Human, I was instead pushed away, since I could not die. It could be weeks or months before I found them again, and my life in-between became hard to endure, as I moved on before I was forced to. Also, I watched as many nations of the world became harder and more imperialistic, even to Japan and America. I suppose the Americans had the advantage here-their tradition is disobedience, and a sorry tendency to dominate and interfere remained only that-for the most part. We ourselves have obedience at our core, which is a great and wondrous thing - until our leaders became corrupt. As the storm between the two nations gathered, I visited my father's grave-and acted in rage and hubris. But it was not I who paid the price for this."

She cupped her grandson's cheek once more.

"It was you. For at his gravesite I cursed my father's name. I cursed him so that, should he ever somehow return to Earth, he, so agile and able, should walk as a clumsy fool ; that he, so able of mind and focused, should be a quivering wreck, and that he, so certain and clear-minded, should know only faltering confusion and denseness."

She closed her eyes and pulled away, almost seemingly in shame.

"My father's name, you see, was Keitaro Urashima. Curses are stupid things to cast, and always bite back at the one who made them. In cursing one I hated so, I ended up cursing one I would love best of all."

Kei's parents recalled how nervous Hinata had been about his naming, and all looked concerned. But two of these were not impressed by this part of the story. One was Kei.

"Grandma? That's the stupidest thing I ever heard!"

Haruka gained a look of insight, and nodded.

"He's right, Mom. What you just said is stupid."

Now, everyone was stunned from both the glare on Hinata's face and the fact that two who so loved, respected and feared her would ever speak to her like that.

Blissfully unaware that the elder she so respected was more kawaii than she could ever be, Shinobu heard the story of Arlo's family. While less mystical, this grounding meant they had suffered at least as much pain in their own way.

"To hear my grandfather tell it, and my mother did not contradict him, it all began from good intentions."

Instantly, Shinobu's thoughts turned to the mess in Molmol, where even the schemers of their group were making it all up as they went along, differing agendas clashing and escalating and stirring up the resentments of years together. For her, it sadly culminated in the one and only time she deliberately struck out at her Sempais in anger. She could forgive herself for the times she reflexively struck Kei, when he got too close, or her fears took her. But for that moment, she would always berate herself.

"Like they say, the worst things usually do."

Arlo silently concurred and began the story of his family's fracturing.

"My grandfather was an anti-establishment activist, even twice visiting the fabled Haight-Ashbury itself. To be so in any society takes courage, and perhaps no more so than in Japan, excepting non-democratic governments. To hear it told, he was a man of fiery denunciations and able to back up his claims to conservative critics. All seemed well. He married a woman he adored, and had a daughter he adored even more, naming her for a character in an Arlo Guthrie folk song. I've heard it-it's almost spoken word, and ends with an odd mishap knocking the singer out of contention for the military draft, and thus service in Vietnam. His job was a creative one - as young 'hippie' couples started their own counter-culture businesses, he would keep the law and the corrupt from exploiting and harassing them. He also wrote books deploring our country's 'amnesiac' attitudes about the history and aftermath of the Pacific War - this was well before it was considered safe to do so. He even called the DaiKaiju attacks Heaven's recompense for not doing like the Germans did and inculcating our young on why the Fascists were so despised and reviled, and why there are still parts of Asia a Japanese subject should not go."

Shinobu thought about the horrors of those attacks - she knew vaguely that Grandma Hina had seen the creature in 1954, though not how close she and Awa had come near it. She found she did not agree with the opinion, but understood how Arlo's grandfather had arrived at it.

"That would have been around the time of Hedorah, right?"

Arlo nodded. There had been monster attacks with more raw destruction - certainly New York had seen worse with the 'Sham Gojira' incident in 1998. But Hedorah's assault brought a horror home that many could never forget, even those not born at the time.

"Yes. As you can imagine, saying such things while people were being skeletonized in the streets was not winning him any points. But I think he would have kept right on, had one of the casualties not been my great-aunt, my grandmother's sister."

Shinobu took her boyfriend's hand at this. Of course he had never met the woman, but it was obvious the subject was a tender one.

"Thank you, Shinobu. You see, as strong and as thorough a man as my grandfather had been, there was a corner of his life he had neglected, and that was his wife. His long trips and endless list of causes meant he was away more often than not. When his daughter was old enough, he joined her on many of these trips, and as a result, my grandmother was close to neither her husband nor her only child. All she had was her sister, who she said awakened long enough from her slow, lingering death from scarring and other damage caused by Hedorah's gas to beg that her own daughter be cared for always, and given all she could want, since she now had no parents."

Shinobu had already heard a red flag raised in these words, but let Arlo keep on.

"When Grandfather returned with my mother from an anti-Nixon protest in Washington, my grandmother at last laid down the law. His makeshift job, which provided them goods to live and a roof to live under by barter, had to go the way of the wind. She intended to keep her promise to her dying sister, with or without him. My grandfather was stunned that he had hurt his wife so by way of neglect, and utterly cowed by her anger and rage. He could not conceive of life without her, and so gave in to her every demand."

Shinobu recalled Motoko's very earliest frantic denial of her increasing feelings for Kei, and how when Naru listed the ways even she thought the 'pervert' had improved, Motoko had waved and shrugged off every last point in a logic-loop no warrior could fight their way out of.

"But those demands merely increased, right?"

"Not in terms of the amount or nature of those demands. But she did periodically and vastly increase the scope of what those earlier demands meant. My mother's new sister wanted a private school, and got one, despite not having the grades for a decent middle school. The aunt I have never met and hopefully never will demanded new wardrobes every New Year, and there was no debate."

Shinobu asked the obvious.

"What about Alice-San?"

Arlo shook his head.

"My mother was told that her cousin-now-older-sister had special needs, and she learned the hard way that these needs were always to be seen to well above her own. But since my grandfather had shown her early on a side of life that eschewed luxury and enshrined commitment and effort, she accepted this and became devoted to her Onee-Chan. They actually got along, or so I'm told. I wonder now if my mother saw a connection between them that this woman did not."

Shinobu felt cold inside at this. Yes, she tended to be closer to Naru and Mitsu, while Su was closer to Motoko and Sarah. But they were all sisters, and each loved the other, the events of last summer aside. They could butt heads, and they could be buttheads, but their love was genuine, real and deep.

"How did your father enter the picture?"

Arlo almost glared at her for referring to the crude fool they'd met earlier in the day as that. But he seemed to quickly remember - for good or ill, that's who he was. Arlo could reject his father, and be as different a man as possible from his father, but he could not undo the fact of it all.

"Well, the 'Real Job' that my grandfather found was as security at the very store we met him at today. He had once rescued my - my birth-father - from fellow radicals, convincing them that kidnapping was not a good route to shaking up the establishment. In this, he earned the gratitude of my other grandfather, who hired him when no others would. Of course, you couldn't put a man who once screamed 'We Deserve The Monsters For Being Ones Ourselves' on the sales floor. Even I can see that. So his job was to ride herd on my embarrassment of a father, who even then jumped on whatever moved. After one particularly bad outing, my mother's father was forced to take my father in and do nothing but watch him 24/7. Since this kept him in the job that she had demanded he take, my grandmother was forced to let a randy young man in with her two nubile daughters. Yet it worked out better than they'd hoped. My father actually kept himself somewhat well, and began to pursue my 'aunt'. My mother for her part tried to get his attention, but to him she was merely amusing and friendlier than the woman who insulted, belittled and sometimes struck him."

Arlo saw a look in Shinobu's eyes, and gambled that he knew what it meant.

"I care for you. But I demand that you do not insult your Sempais by comparing them to those two. For all the onsen incidents and exposed skin and all that went with them, theirs was a more loving relationship in their worst moment than these two at their best. It was a cold pursuit, Shinobu. He wanted to pursue a woman who didn't immediately open her legs to him, and she wanted to see this man prostrate himself in that pursuit. They were never in love. They were each merely something the other brat wanted, and meant to have it."

"How can you know that for certain?"

"By way of what happened next. While he had not made as much progress as he wanted, it was becoming apparent that my 'aunt' was warming towards her pursuer. My mother, from her own admission at least partly wanting what her spoiled adopted sister wanted as well, made her foolish offer to him, and he gobbled up her innocence without a second thought."

Shinobu felt compelled to speak.

"I'm glad they did. For all these pains and mistakes and missteps gave me you - the first man to truly enter my heart since Kei."

She loved seeing his overburdened face smile, and he kept a part of this as he continued.

"But my grandfather's version of events revealed several darker elements even my mother hadn't known of. You see, my father had hit a stonewall in winning the woman he truly wanted. Even their engagement hadn't seen him in her bed. He also knew that someone as flighty as her might break the engagement at any time - she already had more than once. He had seen firsthand how, whenever my mother got or had anything she didn't, it drove my 'aunt' into a frenzy."

Shinobu had some distinct flaws, but denseness was not among them - most times.

"No! That is about the most loathsome thing I've ever heard."

Arlo nodded.

"Grandfather has no direct proof of this, but it was finally the rage over my mother's pregnancy with me that seemed to have driven her adopted sister into yielding up her own bed to my father. He begged forgiveness, claimed he had been seduced by a girl who was half Lolita and half Luthor, and was forgiven just like that, because now my aunt could forever deny my mother something unique and not able to be duplicated."

"Then your aunt demanded she be thrown out?"

"Oddly, no, though it was probably nothing she objected to. It seems it was my grandmother's idea to throw her own daughter out, and to my grandfather, she once more raised the stakes to the existence of their marriage itself. He told us he nearly rebelled, nearly called her bluff and nearly prepared to live with the consequences, if any. But as the young activist he had been had always said, once you submit to an authority and buy into its lies for your own benefit, you must accept that you will always find more reasons to submit. My father encountered one setback - his father insisted on point of disinheritance that he actually marry the only worthwhile woman he'd ever brought home - which says something about his other conquests, I suppose. So my mother went off and had me, with the aid of Hinata-Dono seeing us through hard but good times. Yet my grandfather's sad tale was not done."

Shinobu was not long in wondering what could be worse.

"The marriage, as you and I glimpsed, was and remains a loveless, childless one - it seems that exposure to Hedorah may have sterilized my aunt, or maybe she was just too cold to bear fruit. When my father's father died, my father resumed his nearly-pedophilic pursuits full-time, as head of a department store chain that has not prospered under his yoke. My grandfather gave up trying to rein him in, and then one day faced a nearly-certain consequence of Hedorah - his wife, my grandmother, fell victim to a cancer that defied analysis and treatment. As she was to die soon, she unapologetically told my grandfather that her sister had never awakened from her coma, and that she made up the request to indulge her adopted niece in all things. As he had caused her pain by neglect, so would she by forcing him to abandon his dream, place his daughter - for that is what this woman saw my mother as, his daughter alone - second in all things, and then forced him to ultimately banish her over a mistake otherwise forgivable and easily concealed, if it came to that. It seems she may have known why my father seduced my mother as well. My grandfather was crushed, but after offering an apology for his neglect, soundly denounced his wife for using her sister's child as a tool of vengeance, and making her into a spoiled brat, a woman-child incapable of growing up. Since my mother obviously meant nothing to her own mother, my grandfather did not even bring her up. He told her she had dishonored and disgraced the memory of the sister she said she loved, and then left her to die alone. The daughter and son-in-law she had schemed and plotted for never once visited her."

With as much forethought as she had once kneed Kei with, Shinobu leaned over and kissed her man, and it was arguably only the lack of any privacy that broke them apart after two minutes. When she took his hand and helped him up, he made a wrong assumption.

"Shinobu, we can't leave here. Not now."

She squeezed the hand she held to the point of crunching.

"Pervert! But-thank you as well. I made a promise to Alice-San, and I intend to keep it. But we all need to get past these sad events, and remember the joyous one we're all here for."

As they went to collect Alice and her father, Hiro, inside Haruka's hospital room, Hinata the elder (who looked junior) finally found the presence to speak.

"You call my words stupid? Remember, you pups, I was there for all this. You were not."

Kei shook his head.

"Grandma, I don't doubt that your father was also named Keitaro, and that you cursed him at his gravesite. But there's no way that has anything to do with me."

Naru stared at her man in disbelief.

"Honey, your name could have displaced 'clumsy' itself as a word in the dictionary. I mean, like Grandma said, I was there and have the torn-off clothes to prove it."

But Haruka backed up her nephew in this case.

"It's like Kanako said, kid. Kei may have been a bit of a crybaby when he was little, but the guy you snuggled beside in the onsen that night was the product of his worries about Todai, and how its pursuit cost him a social life, at least a little. He was a wreck then, but I can tell you, as a little boy, he had-well-style."

Haruka was blushing, then Kei, and Naru saw that this was not the typical teasing the pair liked to subject her to. Naru turned to the only other one who clearly remembered Kei as a little boy.

"Mutsumi?"

But Mutsumi was in a meditative state, something Mitsu confirmed by waving her hands in front of Mutsumi's face.

"This bird has flown. She said something before about having a line on those Bizarros that attacked us, but I dunno."

Appearing in the corner of the room, a new voice entered the debate.

"Auntie and my brother are correct, Grandma. Keitaro only became the nerve-ridden man we once saw by way of keeping to a draining promise no one sane would hold a child to-"

Kanako's eyes darted around at the ladies of the Hinata-Sou.

"-not to mention dealing with sociopathic and often psychotic levels of unjust abuse, which would shred any man's..."

A jar came down over Kanako's head, and the lid was sealed over it. Kaolla Su smiled.

"Payback's a pain, witch!"

Kanako's foot emerged from the jar, kicking Su in the head as she broke out.

"Indeed, Princess. As you say, payback."

Su grinned as she rubbed her head.

"Okay-I like you now."

Haruka leaned over to the time-traveler version of her newborn daughter.

"Hey-does Kanako get any better in the future? Just a hint will do."

Future Hinata the younger shrugged.

"I dunno. I thought she was just a story you all told to keep me in line. You'd say, _'Behave, Hina, or Auntie Kanako will kidnap, bind and torture you.' _You mean she's for real?"

Since this was about what Haruka expected, she moved to keep her mother/grandmother from swatting them all.

"Mom-tell the rest of your story. But know that you're wrong about Kei's curse."

Hinata the elder looked confused, with a central point of her narrative having been possibly refuted. But she indeed kept going, this as Mitsu and Kanako's birth-family also arrived to pay their respects. Off-balance, Hinata looked to Awa for strength, and the old man's smile made the young-looking girl/woman find her focus once more.

"The Pacific War came, and if I have spoken well of America before, I did not think very well of them then. I knew what war was, and since we had used planes for distance combat, I could not denounce them as fully as our countrymen, but the noise and destruction made me wonder if Yamamoto-Dono had been off in his estimate, and that the giant we awakened was merely a barbarian thug. Whatever we deserved, and whatever was merely gleeful revenge on the part of our now-enemy, it all seemed like Hell on Earth. The family of spirits that attends me now was forced to flee for their safety, so in succession, I sought two places I thought safe from the war. There are many reasons given for what happened in those places, some more legitimate than others. But I will say two things about what I twice witnessed. One is, that I hated America selfishly - not for the bombings or the horror, or the deaths of my people, quick and slow - but because their super-weapon could still not kill me as I wished. The second thing is this, So Kami Be Invoked - It Should Never Happen Again, To Anyone, Anywhere, Ever."

The room was filled with the shared words of response, all spoken as with one voice.

"So Kami Be Invoked."

What lay past Hiroshima and Nagasaki was perhaps as amazing as anything else Hina told of.

"A brave woman dragged me out of that place of death, and even in her coldness was warmer to me than many had been in ages. I took her place caring for the men who had taken wounds outer and inner, but due to my appearance, I needed someone to claim as my guardian. To that end, I found a fool who needed me as well - a man who missed two aircraft carriers, got himself cursed in the process, and who gave my sorry life focus once more."

Hina embraced her man, time travel and all other considerations aside.

"Though I denied my feelings for you, I thought that perhaps finally my curse was broken."

She let him sit down, Awa's face still showing concern that his wife was merely a disguised little girl.

"I learned to force myself to age, to let time do the work my father's curse denied me. But invariably, I would snap back as I slept, the effort also being a draining one. But as I fell in love with my wonderful man, I found I was able to keep myself at a later age with little or no effort. As said, I thought as I aged and lived with him, that my curse was broken. I lived a life quite full and raised a family-mistakes and triumphs blending together into what I thought were my approaching golden years."

Mitsu's mothers sat down beside their adopted sister, and smiled to be openly beside her for the first time in decades.

"I coulda told you, Hina - curses are real funny things. They almost make up their own rules."

Mrs. Konno agreed.

"Hidden depths of hate, like your father apparently had, can make even the power of love only somewhat effective."

Hina began to conclude her tale, though the details of it would be years in coming forward.

"My daughter and her man did not believe in such silly things as immortality, and so are not with us. Or should we expect them as well, future granddaughter?"

Future Hina looked down.

"I actually tried to get them, but they thought I was just crazy. Sorry, Mom."

Haruka squeezed the traveler's hand.

"The best part of them I'm holding in both arms from two different times."

Hina the elder tried to finish.

"Awa died, protecting our daughter's child from death as he went, and now my focus was gone. When I found him wrapped around Haruka after his sacrifice, I did not sleep for days. When I could go no further, I ordered Kenjiro to care for Haruka, and locked myself away. Surely enough, when I woke up, I was once more all of ten years old. I've had to use makeup ever since, with people thinking that I shrank from bone and muscle loss. Only at certain times have I actually been as old as I played on the outside - like when our government and the American FBI questioned me after my abrupt 'return'. The snap-back in those cases badly unbalanced me - and probably played a part in how vile I was towards the grandson who risked everything to bring me back."

The tale concluded, Kei sniffed and held his grandmother of the ages close.

"Forgive me, Kei. Forgive a disguised old woman who wanted death too damned much."

A part of the crybaby Kei had once been was forever left behind with a few simple words.

"All is forgiven."

Kei then pulled back a bit.

"But hey-did you really send me to the Sou for the sake of the ladies? Because I'm just not sure of-"

At that moment, Shinobu entered with Arlo and his reunited family, while Motoko wheeled Tsuruko in, holding her newborn son. Arlo looked around.

"Did we miss anything important?"

Hina the elder sighed.

"My father was fiercely opposed to the Restoration, to the end of the Shogunate..."

Tsuruko's husband Shuhei rolled his eyes and thought to himself :

_*Oh, Great. It's going to be one of those looong stories...*_

_Next chapter : Kei belts one out and gets belted ; the future and the past say their goodbyes as thunder in the present builds ; A really long but productive summer changes everything ; and the manga watches the anime?_

_BTW, thanks for being more patient than I deserve - Gojirob_


End file.
